San Antonio Water System has now replaced 300,000 water meters with new smart meters that can more closely monitor water usage for its customers.
The city-owned utility plans to replace all meters by the end of 2025 — about 610,000 in total.
The new meters enable SAWS to track customers' water usage hour-by-hour instead of taking a manual monthly reading.
SAWS said the meters will allow it to see if a customer is violating watering restrictions. Customers will receive a phone call, an email and a text message if there is continuous usage of five gallons per hour or more over a 24-hour period.
Fines for violating restrictions can be as high as $500. Officials at SAWS said there are no plans to use the smart meters to levy fines against customers. They will only be used to remind water users to come back into full compliance.
Learn more about the program here.
The announcement came the same week that SAWS said it neared the end of its more than a decade-long consent decree with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
An update SAWS gave to the city council on Tuesday demonstrated that it was on track to complete the consent decree requirements in 2026.
SAWS entered into the consent decree with the EPA in 2013 over sanitary sewer overflows that the federal government first contacted the water utility about in 2007.
In 2010, SAWS had more than 10 of these spills per 100 miles of sewer line. Now, that number has dropped to just over two spills per 100 miles.
The water utility has two final projects between Culebra and Bandera outside of Loop 410 with a combined cost of nearly $90 million.
The SAWS developments also came in the midst of extreme drought conditions.
Northwest Bexar County is undergoing extreme drought conditions, while the rest of the county was rated with "moderate" drought conditions.
San Antonio International Airport has only recorded a little more than 21 inches of rain since Jan. 1. That is nearly half a foot below the year-to-date average for the airport.
The National Weather Service reported no major precipitation was in the forecast through the end of the month.
San Antonio is currently under Stage 3 restrictions, which limits landscape watering with irrigation systems, sprinkler or soaker hoses to once a week from 5 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 9 p.m. to midnight on designated water days.
Watering with drip irrigation is allowed every Monday and Friday, but only from 5 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 9 p.m. to midnight.
Stage 3 restrictions also prohibit washing parking lots, driveways, streets and sidewalks with only a few exceptions, and residential car washing is allowed once per week on Saturday or Sunday. For all the details on current water restrictions, go to SAWS.org.
Brian Kirkpatrick and Josh Peck contributed to this report.
