Representatives from the United States Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) visited City of Norman staff and elected officials this week to discuss collaborative efforts, awarded funds and ongoing initiatives as part of investments through President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The USBR constructed Lake Thunderbird via the Norman Project in the 1960s to provide municipal water for Norman and two other neighboring communities.

Most recently, the USBR granted $2 million to the City of Norman for the Advanced Water Metering Project (AMI)  – one of 14 projects selected nationwide to receive competitive funding. AMI is a system of meters, communication networks and software that wirelessly delivers water usage information and service alerts directly to the provider and, in many instances, the customer.

“The WaterSMART Water and Energy Efficiency Grants will help communities conserve and use water more efficiency, increase the production of hydropower and help us tackle historic drought,” said Assistant Secretary for Water and Science Tanya Trujillo, U.S. Department of the Interior.

AMI technology automatically collects consumption data from water meters, and subsequently transfers data over a secure network to a central database. The collected data is used for water billing, analyzing water usage trends and more. Pre-engineering work and stage 1 of implementation is currently underway.

Additional local projects funded through USBR include ongoing research or review of: man-made wetlands utilization, the Indirect Potable Reuse project, and a firm yield reservoir study of Lake Thunderbird.

The City of Norman appreciates the partnership and support of USBR in advancing utility-related programs and in making community ideas reality.

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