The City of Saluda approved spending $28,000 to install 12 check meters throughout its water system in order to identify leaks in small areas.

The Saluda Board of Commissioners met Tuesday, Nov. 12 and approved spending the money out of its water budget. The city currently has $43,000 budgeted for infrastructure system development.

Commissioner George Sweet led the discussion, saying mayor Fred Baisden suggested the city subdivide the water system and place check meters in different areas to better identify leaks in the system. He said recently, a water customer lost 72,000 gallons of water during a leak.

Sweet said the city noticed the problem but couldn’t tell where the leak was coming from. It ended up being on the customer’s side of the meter.

“I think this would go a long way to help us identify where the major problems are before they become so expensive,” said Sweet.

Commissioner Lynn Cass asked when there is a leak on the customer’s side if the city absorbs the costs. Sweet said traditionally, the property owner will repair the leak then the city does an adjustment on the bill to take out sewer cots and to adjust the water usage at cost.

Baisden suggested before the city spends the money on the meters that an engineer be asked to look at the system to ensure installing the meters is a wise decision.

Commissioners decided to ask for an engineer’s opinion and if the engineer has a better idea, the project will come back to the board of commissioners.