Meter Box Inspection Program

The City of Newport News Waterworks (NNWW) supplies drinking water on a retail basis to approximately 410,000 people on the lower Virginia Peninsula, including the Cities of Newport News, Hampton, Poquoson, York County, and parts of James City County. For FY 2025, the system's average daily demand was approximately 33.4 million gallons per day (MGD). Water is distributed through a water pipeline transmission and distribution system covering 250 square miles and extending over 1,700 miles in length. Waterworks successfully completed its Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) initiative in May 2024. With the implementation, Waterworks has significantly reduced the need for routine field visits to customer meter boxes. Most of the City's AMI water meters read automatically and are equipped with internal remote service valves, allowing many service functions, including water turn-on and turn-off operations, to be performed remotely. Prior to AMI implementation, meter readers visited each meter box monthly to obtain manual readings, providing regular opportunities to locate, inspect, and identify issues with meter boxes and service connections. As routine manual meter reading is no longer required, many meter boxes now go several years without being physically inspected. As a result, meter boxes are increasingly becoming obscured by accumulated soil, grass, mulch, landscaping, and other encroachments, making them more difficult to locate and access when maintenance or emergency service is required. This reduction in routine field presence has created the need for a proactive inspection program to ensure meter boxes remain visible, accessible, and in good condition, and to identify leaks, damage, tampering, and other deficiencies before they become larger operational or customer service issues. The inspection program will provide the City with current condition data and support a proactive asset management strategy that improves system reliability, reduces response times, and helps preserve critical water distribution infrastructure.