MONTAGUE — Following a third-party review, a $105,883 bill to the Clean Water Facility has been reduced to $88,312 to reflect a more accurate daily average of water needed for the chlorination process.

Clean Water Facility Superintendent Chelsey Little, updating the Selectboard on the bill this week, explained that the Turners Falls Water Department, which issued the bill, read the new meter in October. The meter measures the flow of water as chlorine is added. Accounting for 40 days of water use from when the meter was installed in August, the reading showed an estimated average of 115,000 gallons of water used per day.

By multiplying this estimated daily usage by 182 days to calculate estimated water use since April, when the annual water chlorination process began, the Turners Falls Water Department determined that 20 million gallons had been used over six months, thus resulting in the original bill of $105,883. Surprised by the figure, Little wondered if the unusually high bill could be the result of a faulty meter.

On Dec. 3, a third-party water metering company was called in by the Turners Falls Water Department to verify the readings from the new meter, and the bill was amended on Dec. 4 to reflect an average daily use of 96,000 gallons, amounting to a $88,312 bill.

Given that these readings are still quite high compared to the previous meter that read only 16,000 gallons per day, Little said, it leads her to believe the old meter, installed sometime in the 1980s, was inaccurate.

“We all seem to think … the old meter was extremely inaccurate,” Little said. “They think it was probably not a good meter since day one.”

To address the concern over the large water demand at the 34 Greenfield Road facility, Little said next steps involve pressure testing the water to see if there are any leaks in the system, including where the water is being fed through the meter, where water is discharged and where water is chlorinated.

As for paying the bill to the Turners Falls Water Department, Little said there are options that she discussed with Town Administrator Walter Ramsey and Town Accountant Angelica Desroches. Little explained in a follow-up interview that the plan is to pay the bill out of the Clean Water Facility’s operating budget for fiscal year 2025, which will put the water line item into the negative, to be offset by incoming revenue that would cover the deficit into the new fiscal year. This option allows the bill to be paid faster, and no Special Town Meeting would be required to authorize the payment.

As the town plans its budget for fiscal year 2026, Little said she will raise the water budget for the facility from $15,000 to $30,000 to account for increased water usage. Meanwhile, she will also aim to keep the amount of water needed from the Turners Falls Water Department low by using reclaimed water — wastewater processed with advanced treatment so that it can be reused safely for other purposes — as the feed water for chlorine.

There is no anticipation of another larger-than-expected bill. Little said “everybody’s worked together,” referencing the Turners Falls Water Department and the Montague Selectboard, to figure out the issue.

Erin-Leigh Hoffman can be reached at ehoffman@recorder.com or 413-930-4231.