The Madison County Water Department (MCWD) hosted a media briefing on Wednesday to provide more information on the upcoming transition to in-house billing, meter reading and customer service. County Engineer Chuck Faulkner gave remarks about the transition and fielded questions from residents and media afterwards.

What to know: Starting on March 27, MCWD customers who receive their water bill from Huntsville Utilities will start receiving their bill directly from the Madison County Water Board. The customers will receive their first bill from MCWD sometime in early April depending on their specific bill cycle.

Who will this affect: MCWD stated that 37,000 total households within Madison County will be affected with this change. The county provided maps that detail the service area which is included with this story.

What will change: The existing account information for these customers will automatically transfer from Huntsville Utilities over to MCWD. Customers will notice a new water account number and due date on their first bill from MCWD.

The transition will not change the rate structure of the water being paid for nor will any of the infrastructure regarding how water is provided to MCWD customers. Customers should also still call MCWD for any service related issues regarding their water.

Do affected customers need to do anything: No. Those affected will automatically start receiving new bills from MCWD. However, any customers who are enrolled in auto pay features with Huntsville Utilities will need to enroll with MCWD.

Why is this change happening: Huntsville Utilities (HU) has historically provided these services for Madison County under their contract together. However, as HU moved away from manual meter reading, the cost incurred by MCWD increased because HU was sometimes traveling to a house for sole reason of reading a Madison County meter.

Faulkner stated that the main two reasons for the change we water conservation and fiscal responsibility. The new system will allow MCWD to gather more data about the water being used throughout the county and where it goes.

This will also create a “one stop shop” for customers and all of their water needs.

For additional information about the Madison County Water Department’s transition to in-house billing, please visit www.madisoncountywater.org. To view a sample bill, please follow the link here.

For additional updates, follow the Madison County Water Department page on Facebook, or visit www.facebook.com/35811water.