STEP 1: Locate Your Meter
Your water meter is generally located near the curb in front of your home or place of business in a direct line with the main outside faucet. It is housed in a concrete box or plastic box with a metal or plastic lid usually marked "water meter." Carefully remove the lid by using a tool such as a large screwdriver. Please, do not use your fingers. Insert the tool into one of the holes and pry the lid off. Visually examine the area around the meter to make sure there are no harmful insects or other animals. In other cases the meter is found in the basement of your home, in the crawl space under your mobile home, in the closet of your home if built on a slab (no basement).

STEP 2: Read Your Water Meter 
All customers within the many cities pay for their water use measured by a meter. This results in each customer paying their share of operating the system based upon the amount of water used, encouraging conservation and discouraging waste.

Many older cities use  meters measuring water in cubic feet (one cubic foot equals about 7.48 gallons). Charges for the amount of water consumed are based on the number of units of 100 cubic feet (748.5 gallons) you use during a billing period.

There are two basic types of water meters -- the straight-reading meter which resembles the an odometer in a car, and the older model round-reading meter which has several separate dials. 

How to Read a Straight-Reading Meter 
In the meter at the right, the reading is taken from the figures shown under the words CUBIC FEET. The meter reads 81,710, which is the total number of cubic feet of water recorded since the meter was installed. Because our charge is based on units of 100 cubic feet, the meter reader discards the last two numbers (the ones with the black background). So, this reading would actually be 817. 

So, if by the time the we read your bills the next time you had used 1,200 cubic feet of water, the new reading would be 82,910 (81,710 plus 1,200). Again, we'd drop the last two numbers and your official reading would be 829. Your bill would be figured by subtracting the old number (817) from the new number (829). You would then be billed for 12 units. 

It's important to note that the large sweep hand is used only for testing purposes.

How to Read a Round-Reading Meter 
The meter at the right has several small dials and is a little more difficult to read than the straight-reading meter. The dials are marked off in divisions of 10, and are read much like a clock, except that the hand on every other dial turns counterclockwise. 

To read this meter, begin with the 100,000 dial and read each dial around the meter to the 10 dial (the one foot dial is used merely to show that the meter is functioning). If the hand is between numbers, use the lower number. Therefore, the dials at right register 80,632. 

As with the other meter, the last two figures are discounted, so the number of units registering is 806. If, the next time the meter is read, the meters show the total amount used is 81,847, the total, after discounting the last two numbers, would be 818. By subtracting 806 from 818, we'd find that the bill would reflect a usage of 12 units.