The city of Gahanna has been nominated for a TechColumbus award for a water program that is saving residents money and helping the city conserve water.

Brian Hoyt, the city's public-information manager, said Gahanna changed the way it reads some of its meters. Until recently, meter readers would drive by all of the homes and point devices at water meters to read information and collect water-usage figures for the city. Two-thirds of the meters still are read that way, Hoyt said. With a new system, about 4,000 the 12,500 homes have transmitters on the meters that transmit the same information to the city without having the meter reader drive by the house.

"This enables us to read meters from our billing office," said Terry Emery, the city's director of service and engineering.

Emery said meters had been read every 90 days but now the city could gather data daily, thus helping residents, especially if a potential leak is detected. He said when irregular usage is reported through the transmitter, workers could determine if a leak has occurred and whether the leak is inside or outside the home. City workers could inform residents about the leak so that it could be repaired before water bills rise dramatically.

For example, Emery said, a worker recently identified irregular usage and, after calling the homeowner, learned that a hose bib outside had burst and water was spraying in the backyard.

Thus far, the new program has found 35 leaks and saved residents $650 a quarter, Hoyt said.

"It saves resources, which is especially important now at this time," Hoyt said.

Emery said the system has another use also, by helping the city find links in main water lines coming into the city from Columbus. Gahanna pays Columbus for its water so anytime the city finds leaks immediately and makes repairs, it saves water and money.

"It allows us to get a much better control over water waste or water loss," he said. "We're able to have a system in place to track our own city lines for leaks."

Thus far, the program has received "fantastic feedback" from residents who have experienced leaks, Emery said.

Though the entire city is not yet outfitted with the transmitters, Emery said, city workers still continue to install them. He said he intends to have the entire city outfitted by the end of 2010.

The program has been nominated for the TechColumbus award under the following two categories: green innovation and innovation in nonprofit service delivery.

Hoyt said the city is included in the nonprofit category because it would not compete against a for-profit company.

Winners will be announced during a Feb. 4 ceremony.