Water district switches to Dropcountr

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By Josh Pike | Staff Writer

The Pagosa Area Water and Sanitation District (PAWSD) is implementing Dropcountr, a software to alert customers about potential water leaks, as a replacement to the previous Aquahawk system.

District Manager Justin Ramsey explained in an interview that customers signed up for the program can receive notifications by email or text when they use a certain amount of water over a specific period of time, designated by the customer, or when their bill will be over a certain amount.

Ramsey added that the program will be “very similar” to Aquahawk and that PAWSD switched to Dropcountr because it is slightly less expensive for the district and because it allows PAWSD to send out notifications to customers when water would be turned off in an area.

Ramsey explained that the system monitors water usage through the “little gray boxes” near the PAWSD water meters on residents’ properties. These meters measure water consumption every five to 15 minutes and transmit that information to nearby monitors and eventually to the PAWSD offices by short-range radio signals.

According to Ramsey, this same meter system is used for determining water billing and can be employed by customers to look up their water use online.

Ramsey highlighted that Dropcountr is a service provided by PAWSD as a benefit to its customers, but that it is not required and that customers are still responsible for ensuring that there are no leaks in their systems.

He added that Dropcountr also has the benefit of being available as a phone app as well as online, whereas Aquahawk has only been available online.

Instructions for signing up for Dropcountr can be found on the PAWSD website at https://www.pawsd.org/customer-care/water-monitoring-dropcountr/.

josh@pagosasun.com