Notwithstanding Sections 526 and 527, any water purveyor that becomes an urban water supplier on or after January 1, 2005, shall do both the following:

(a)Install water meters on all municipal and industrial service connections located within its service area within 10 years of meeting the definition of urban water supplier.

(b)(1) Charge each customer for which a water meter has been installed, based on the actual volume of water delivered, as measured by the water meter, within five years of meeting the definition of urban water supplier.

(2) Notwithstanding paragraph (1), in order to provide customers with experience in volume-based water service charges, an urban water supplier that is subject to this subdivision may delay, for one annual seasonal cycle of water use, the use of meter-based charges for service connections that are being converted from nonvolume-based billing to volume-based billing.

(c) For the purposes of this article, an “urban water supplier” has the same meaning as that set forth in Section 10617.

(Added by Stats. 2004, Ch. 884, Sec. 6. Effective January 1, 2005.)