Insanely high water bills caused by leaks will soon be a thing of the past as the Water and Sewer Department installs electronic water meters.

If the new system detects a leak “we get on the phone immediately, followed up with a letter to inform the property owner of the situation, possibly saving the owner hundreds of dollars in charges for lost water while preserving our water resource,” said Water and Sewer Superintendent Nick Nicholson.

Town Meeting voters approved the meter upgrade program in 2011, and so far 60 percent, or about 1,800 meters, have been replaced with 1,200 to go. The old system requires employees to go up to each meter to record water usage, a process that takes almost two months, hence only biannual billing. Once the new system is in place, it could take as little as two days to complete.

The installed electronic meters are already read the first week of each month, resulting in early detection of leaks, which Nicholson said often come from irrigation systems or toilets. More than 40 leaks have been discovered some months.

“If they’re only read once every six months, they could have a leak in their house for six months and all of a sudden they get a substantial bill,” Nicholson said.

Early leak detection is also important for water conservation, he said.

The new system uses a laptop that is keyed into the electronic meters, which send out a signal every 11 seconds. As a department employee drives down the street, the meters ping the computer program and record the reading. On a good day, it can read a meter on Mattapoisett Neck Road from the center of town.

Chuck McCullough, an independent contractor for the department, uses the laptop to investigate leaks.

“Bills just went out so I’m flooded with phone calls,” he said.

Sitting in front of a house, he can check the amount of water used in a 24 hour or even four hour period across several months to see if water usage is above average, denoting a “silent leak.”

Being able to identify those faster should assuage any concerns about switching to the new meters.

Plus, the process takes a maximum of 30 minutes wherein a building’s water is turned off, the meter is switched out and the water is turned back on.

The new meters are already built into operations, so there is no charge to the customer. Plus, Nicholson said meters 20 years old or more are already due for a replacement.

Residents are notified by mail of the opportunity to upgrade to the new water metering system, but they can contact the department if they would like to have their meter replaced sooner.

The replacements should be complete by this time net year.

“I just wish I had done it earlier,” Nicholson said.