Your water bill in Maryville could go up soon, but officials say it’s money you should have been paying all along.

The City Council in Maryville is considering a proposal to replace all of the city’s aging water meters. City Manager Greg McDanel says a study conducted by Schneider Electric shows that the replacements would pay for themselves.

“Due to those new meters potentially reading more accurately, that revenue generation would pay for the project,” McDanel said in an interview. “It’s estimated per the study that the city is not capturing approximately $355,000 to $400,000 (per year) of revenue from water bills for customers based on inaccurate meters.”

“Typically, when meters age, especially your large commercial meters, they do tend to become more inaccurate and capture less revenue that is supposed to be billed to the customer.”

There are about 4,200 meters in the city. Schneider Electric tells city officials they could replace all of them in about 90 days for about $3.6 million. Based on Schneider’s study, the city could see increased revenues totalling about $7.8 million over 15 years.

The new meters would offer other cost savings as well. McDanel says they would include centralized Automatic Meter Reading (AMR).

“This allows the city to, essentially, press a button from City Hall and read all those meters instantaneously, instead of sending staff out once a month to read all the meters physically,” McDanel said. That costs the city more than $17,000 a year.

City Council members will continue discussions with Schneider Electric, and if they decide to enter into a contract, it would likely occur before the beginning of the new fiscal year August 1. McDanel says if that happens the work could begin by October.