Smart water meters, Haven Humane readies to resume pet spays: Ask the Record Searchlight – Record Searchlight

Ask the Record Searchlight is a newsroom-wide initiative to connect with you, our readers. If you wondered about something happening in town or had questions on a North State issue, tell us about it. We’ll do our best to answer.
Here are answers to the latest R-S reader questions, which have been edited for clarity, length and accuracy.
Scroll to the bottom of this story to find out how you can ask the Record Searchlight.
Q. When will the city of Redding get smart water meters?
A.  “I would imagine that someday we’ll go that way,” but smart water meters are not in the city’s foreseeable future, Redding Water Utility Manager Josh Watkins said. “We’re not at that point yet. There’s nothing in the near term for us.”
For one thing, it’s expensive to change out an entire meter system, said Watkins. He added that whatever communication network is put in place to transmit data must conduct readings for both Redding Water and Redding Electric Utility.  
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“We wouldn’t go out and do something separate from (REU) because it just wouldn’t make sense. We’d want the system to be able to work together so that you can get both (readings),” said Watkins.
Smart meters send wireless signals in real time so residents and utilities can better track water use on a weekly, daily or even hourly basis. That could make it easier to hit conservation targets or detect leaks. “There’s a lot you can do once you have that data,” said Watkins.
Traditional water meters generally require city staff to visit each meter monthly to record water usage, on which the household’s water bills are based.
Smart meters are being rolled out nationwide and internationally. The California Public Utilities Commission has authorized the state’s investor-owned utilities to replace conventional customer meters with wireless ones in order to “give consumers greater control over their energy use,” the state’s website says.
The devices can already be found in San Francisco, where folks can track their water use by logging into a website. And they’re on the way to being installed by water authorities in San Jose.
Some skeptics have privacy concerns or worry about health risks from the devices’ radio frequency emissions, although California health observers have said they’re safe.
Q. Does Haven Humane Society have a full-time veterinarian on staff? The current lack of veterinary services there seems to be having a detrimental effect on spay/neuter efforts in Shasta County. 
A. There’s updated information on this question, which a reader posed earlier this month and Ask the R-S answered last week.
Haven Humane has recently hired a full-time veterinarian.
That means spay and neuter surgeries for “owned pets” will be again be performed starting in a few weeks, Haven Humane CEO Mark Storrey said. Until then, a “backlog” of animals needing surgical birth control are being directed to private veterinary offices for those services, he said.
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Dr. Kristin Campbell started at Haven Humane on July 11 and is now the organization’s chief medical officer as well as the only veterinarian on staff. She came to Haven Humane from another animal hospital in the region, Storrey said.
Before Campbell joined the shelter in Anderson this month, there had been no full-time veterinarian on staff since February. From time to time, a few local veterinarians periodically provided relief work.
When its staffing was adequate in 2021, Haven Humane performed about 4,500 spay or neuter procedures, mostly on dogs and cats, but also for the occasional rabbit, said Storrey.
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More information about Haven Humane and its services can be found at www.havenhumane.org.
Haven Humane is still recruiting for one more full-time veterinarian, a search that’s been ongoing for more than a year in the midst of a critical shortage of veterinarians nationwide, he said.
This feature is brought to you as part of our newsroom-wide Ask the Record Searchlight initiative. Post questions in the comments section of this story, or:
Michele Chandler covers criminal justice issues for the Redding Record Searchlight/USA Today Network. Follow her on Twitter at @MChandler_RS, call her at 530-338-7753 or email her at [email protected]. Please support our entire newsroom’s commitment to public service journalism by subscribing today.

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