A Washington state company has agreed to replace relatively new electronic transmitters attached to water meters at 68,000 Mecklenburg County homes because of a potentially faulty part that could lead to erroneous water bills.

Itron, the manufacturer, will pay for the new transmitters and the labor to install them at about one-fourth of all homes served by the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Utility Department, Director Barry Gullet said Monday night, Nov. 28.

The agreement, approved by Charlotte City Council on Monday, comes only after Charlotte-Mecklenburg Utility quality-control employees noticed the problem with the 60W transmitters while conducting regular audits and brought the problem to Itron.

The water meters themselves are operating fine, Gullet emphasized Monday night, and will give the utility a baseline.

Utility crews will determine if a homeowner got an inaccurate bill when they install the new transmitters. If the utility has over-billed a homeowner, the utility will credit that customer’s account, Gullet said, and his agency will not seek payments from any homeowners who might have been under-billed.