Soon Okotoks businesses and residents will be benefiting from the water conservation and leak detection program.

Water meter upgrades and installations will start on homes and businesses next month thanks to the Town, EPCOR, and Corix water Products. The upgrades and replacements will bring customers leak protection, back flow monitoring, and remote connectivity to a consumer portal.

Darren Peel, manager of EPCOR water services for Okotoks, says once the upgrades are made residents will no longer see EPCOR employees in their yards.

"The process also adds efficiency to the meter reading where we'll no longer have to enter properties to read meters, we can read everything remotely, that adds to customer privacy and efficiency on our end."

Peel says there will be minimal interruptions from the meter installations.

"Some will be done from the outside of the building, some will just need a radio transmitter added to the meters. The ones that will need a full meter replacement will have a notice provided and an appointment arranged with the customer and a brief outage possibly up to half an hour during the meter replacement."

The program will take about one and a half years to implement and is estimated to be completed at the end of 2017.

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