The City of San Antonio, Texas, according to the Census Bureau, was the second fastest-growing city in the United States from 1990 to 1998. The demand for infrastructure hasincreased with the growth of the city. In order to do "more with less" the San AntonioWater System (SAWS) is continuously looking for ways to leverage new technologies to enable usto meet our growing demand for water in the San Antonio area. In doing this we mustcontinue to be sensitive to our customers' expectations for keeping costs to one of thelowest in the country, while providing superior water quality.The San Antonio area receives water from the Edwards Aquifer. Regional pumping of theaquifer already exceeds the aquifer's ability to sustain them along with natural springflows, downstream environmental needs, and user demands along the Guadalupe Riverduring a drought. Therefore, a recently passed state law is limiting the amount of waterSan Antonio can withdraw from the aquifer. The San Antonio Water System expects itsfinal permit from the Edwards Aquifer Authority to allow approximately 135,000 acre-feet per year under drought conditions. This contrasts with the 188,000 acre-feet thatSAWS actually pumped in 1999. Further, SAWS' permit may be reduced to about120,000 acre-feet in 2008 as part of an overall region-wide reduction in allowablepumping permits.Even with aggressive conservation to reduce per capita consumption, San Antonio'swater supply needs will double by 2050. In addition, San Antonio should have at least a10-year reserve supply over actual projected demand as protection against a drought. In1998, the SAWS Board recommended, and City Council adopted, a 50-year water supplyplan to meet these challenges. This plan was the final product of a long series ofplanning efforts, involving a succession of broad-based citizen committees over nearly adecade. This plan identifies the acquisition of outside water sources and projects relatedto the reduction of water use by our customers. These additional water sources haveincluded the design of an aquifer storage and recovery system, the purchasing ofadditional water rights from nearby areas, and the purchasing of surface water in differentparts of the region. We are also in the final stage of implementing our reuse waterprogram.These additional water supply requirements have necessitated a series of future rateincreases in coming years. Our adopted water plan and scheduled capital improvementplan is expected to cost in the neighborhood of $900,000,000 over the next five years.This has made other capital or M&O projects significantly more difficult to get funded.To combat this we have developed a financial analysis approach to show value beingadded to the system by implementing projects such as the automation of meter reading.This analysis approach has also helped in identifying expenditures that did not add valueto the system, such as smaller system acquisitions. This paper discusses the implementation of SAWS' automated meter reading program.