Question about Water Price Increases

I noted that Michael Robichaud asked a question about water fees on an Rocky View Weekly article which was posted to the Village of Beiseker Facebook page, yesterday.  His question was;

The last part regarding water consumption is a little confusing.
How do you implement increases because of a lack of consumption on allotted water ?

The Village of Beiseker buys its water from the Aqua7 Regional Water Services Commission (A7RWSC).  The commission is made of seven municipalities; Acme, Beiseker, Irricana, Linden, Carbon, and the Counties of Kneehill and Rocky View.  The Commission buys its water from the Town of Drumheller. 

The water from the Drumheller treatment plant is sent to the Aqua7 pumping station at Kirkpatrick.  From there it is treated then pumped out of the valley, first to Carbon and Kneehill County, then to Acme.  There's a "T" in the pipe at Acme. Water goes to Linden and water flows to Beiseker and Irricana.

When this system was set up, years ago, A7RWSC said that they would purchase a set amount of water from Drumheller.  But we've never come close to purchasing that much water!  There's a couple of reasons for that;

• The price of water; although the cost of water from Drumheller is relatively low, the cost of supporting the A7RWSC pumps, treatment systems, and pipes is expensive. 
• Water conservation programs have been effective in convincing people to use less water.
• Rocky View County, although they are full member of A7RWSC, has yet to buy or sell any water at all!

Drumheller claims that its system is geared to provide much more water than A7RWSC is buying.  Supporting that system to provide that unsold capacity is costing Drumheller extra, therefore they are passing that extra cost on to those who buy water from them, i.e. A7RWSC. 

We're expecting up to a 20% increase in the price of water from the Drumheller treatment plant.  That works out to about an 18 cents a cubic metre of water increase over the next few years.

The A7RWSC is trying to keep the price of pumping, treating, and transporting water to as low as possible.

How can the price of water go down?  The price of water can go down if the A7RWSC sells more water.  That means the A7RWSC  has to find more customers for its water! They're working on that.

Does the Water Smell Funny?

We have received a few questions at the Village Office about the smell of Beiseker's tap water.  Some of you have noticed an "earthy" smell or taste to the water these past few weeks. 

This can happen this time of year, especially in drier summers when the flow in the Red Deer River is at its lowest through the year. 

Our water is treated three times before it comes out of your home taps.  The Town of Drumheller treats it before it goes to the Aqua7 Regional Water Services Commission (A7RWSC) treatment and pumping plant at Kirkpatrick, where it is treated again. 

The Village of Beiseker then treats the water a third time before it enters our distribution system here in town.

As a result the water is perfectly safe to drink and use.  We did get a note from A7RWSC a couple of weeks ago mentioning that this odor issue might happen.  Our water is chlorinated at each treatment point, so it can sometimes have a "bleachy" taste, too.

Again, the water is safe.  If that status changes, Aqua7 will inform us right away and we will inform you. 

This recent rain will help the situation as the river flow increases.  Remember, Beiseker and Irricana are at the end of the line so, water changes which happen at the Drumheller site can take a couple of days or more before we notice a difference here.

The best advice I've heard is to draw your drinking water and let it sit in the piture for a while.to let the odors dissipate.

Summertime Reminders

With the warmer weather coming, I'd like to just post a few reminders;

1. Grass clippings and garden waste do not belong in the garbage!  Please, either compost it on your own property or bring it down to the communal composting site behind the Public Works Building.
2. Extended camping is not permitted on vacant lots within the village.  We have an excellent camp ground for those campers who wish to stay here more than a day or two.
3. Off-road motor vehicles must stick to the 15km/h speed limit within village limits.
4. Large plastic items such as large toys and sandboxes cannot be recycled with the rest of the plastic.  Please check with the person at the drop off site before disposing of these items.
5. Most village streets have a posted speed limit of 30 km/h.  Let's keep all those kids safe!
6. All vehicles parked on public streets in the village must have a current registration and a licence plate. 
7. We do not have regular water rationing here in the village, but water is quite expensive when compared to places like the City of Calgary.  If you plan to water your lawn often, prepare for a higher water bill.
8. Summer Fun is a program to give the kids good things to do during the summer holidays.  Check with the Village Office (403-947-3774) for dates and times.

Let's have a safe and happy summer season.

Water Under the Bridge

I think I was the Beiseker councillor referred to by former Irricana councillor Frank Dusome, in a recent post he made on the Irricana Ratepayers web site.  I do recall discussing with him the fact that our village was buying much more water than we were selling.

What happened, there?  First and foremost, our Public Works department found and repaired a number of major leaks in the village's distribution pipes.

We also found that there were many water users in our community who were not paying their fair share, through no fault of their own. Our water metering system at that time was old and corroded.  In some cases, the meter was reading inaccurately or almost not at all.

This meant that some water users were paying the minimum on their bill when they were using much more water.  Our billing system at the time didn't pick up on the discrepancies.

I am pleased to report that we have since replaced our water metering system throughout the village with new digitized models! These new meters are very accurate and automatically relay their reading to a computer carried in a public works vehicle as it goes around town. The new meters are also tamper-proof.

I don't know if some of the highest water users in the village had inaccurate meters, but I'm very confident today that all water users in the village are now paying for what they use.

Water: the new Oil!

The Twentieth Century could probably be called the age of oil.  Our whole economy appeared to be based on and driven by oil; how we get it, who has it and what we do with it.

I think that's about to change for this century.

This summer with its hot temperature and its drought-like conditions in much of the world will make water the thing to get, to have, and to use in the coming years.  Nations will have to start a huge program to collect or manufacture fresh water and move it to where it's needed.  Desalination plants, reservoirs, water storage facilities, pumping systems, water pipelines, redirection projects, and canals will have to be built, and soon! And it won't be cheap!

But it will have to be done!  Because without water, there's nothing!

May 24th Water Line Repairs Update

The plug to stop the line from draining completely has been installed and it is working.  The work on the defective valve has started.

Beiseker started hauling water today.  We want to keep our reservoir up as high as we can during this shut-off time.  Water consumption is down!  Good going, thank you all!

A couple of you remarked that you thought the automatic tree irrigation system on Main Street was still operating. Thank you for that observation and report.  I'll check into that and let everyone know what's happening there.

Article in the Mountain View Gazette

A lengthy article appeared in today's Mountain View Gazette about the water troubles facing the Village;

Beiseker's pricey water woes frustrating for Village council
Tuesday, Feb 14, 2012 03:00 am 
Jennifer Isaac, Mountain View Gazette

Beiseker’s pricey water woes are causing frustration for village council and residents.
Recently, village administration presented figures to council, showing that in 2011 the village had a water deficit of about $400,000, double the figures from the previous year.

Water consumption has been rising in the village, resulting in extremely high costs to the municipality for water provided by the Aqua 7 Regional Water Commission.

According to deputy mayor Ray Courtman, the story began when the aquifer the village drew water from gradually got lower and lower.

“We started looking for other ways to provide us with water,” Courtman said. “About 10 years ago, we decided to go with a new project that was being started north of us to bring water out of the Red Deer River and pump it to all the communities in this area.”

That program, he said, became the Aqua 7 Regional Water Commission, of which he is the vice-chair.

“We turned the water on in September 2005 and we’ve been using that system since then,” Courtman added. “It’s great water. It’s wonderful water. I think it’s better than our well water.”

When Aqua 7 was created about 10 years ago, he said, the province indicated it would pay one third of the cost. “And the federal government said they would pay one third,” Courtman said. “The municipality said they would have to borrow the money. We’re talking millions of dollars here.”

Courtman said they started the process and shortly after, the province decided to give other municipalities up to 90 per cent, instead of one third of the cost.

Good News & Bad News

The good news is that Beiseker Public Works has found some more water leaks!  The bad news is that Beiseker Public Works has found some more water leaks!  Huh?

Bill and his crew have found more holes and cracks in the water pipes under village streets.  Water which the village purchased has been leaking out of those holes into the ground.  We didn't get paid back for that water because it didn't go through a water meter!

Once found, the offending piece of pipe can be removed and replaced.  That means less of our expensive water will flow out into the ground.  That's the good news.

These water breaks are expensive and time consuming to repair, especially in the winter.  And the amount of purchased water hasn't dropped that much since we began fixing the holes.  We've got to get those expensive new water meters installed a.s.a.p. so that we accurately account for all the water used in the village.  That's the bad news.

Have a good weekend!

New Water Meters

Very early in the new year, Public Works will begin our water meter replacement program.  This program is part of our operation to account for all the Aqua 7 Regional Water Commission water we're using.  Currently, Beiseker is buying about 40% more water than we're selling to our users!  The difference has to be picked up by Village taxpayers!  The two main reasons for this discrepancy are: leaks in the delivery system under the streets of the village, and faulty water metering.  Some of the meters in use here are more than fifty years old.  It's time we upgrade those meters.  The new meters will have auto remotes so a computer mounted in the cab of the garbage truck will be able to read them from the laneway as Public Works collects garbage each Friday!

Public Works has located and repaired numerous leaks so far, but there are more!  Once this issue has been solved, Beiseker will be able to focus on other matters needing attention in the village.

We Found some leaks!!

The Village Public Works Department under the leadership of Bill Hnybida found two of the water leaks which have been dogging the village for months now!  The two breaks (actually they were holes in the pipes) were found at the south end of town.  The leaking water had escaped detection by flowing through a gravel layer into our storm drains.  Since the leaks were ahead of the residential water meters, the lost water did not show up on our meter readings.

The leaks have been repaired!  We should notice a substantial drop in our water consumption through the Kneehill Commission (soon to be Aqua7) line.
 
Well done Public Works and congratulations!

Happy New Year, 2011!

I take this opportunity to wish all of you a very Happy New Year! The First real weekend of the new year really blew in a storm for Beiseker! Public Works is busy moving snow out of the way so that traffic can move. I think they've been going almost continuously since the storm let up. Well done Bill and crew!

A hearty thank-you goes to those Beiseker residents who helped stranded motorists over the weekend at the Beiseker Community Centre. We had over 40 "special guests" in town thanks to the blizzard. Most managed to resume their journeys by Sunday afternoon. Again we showed Beiseker to be the "Friendly Village"!

A reminder to all that we have a snow removal bylaw here in Beiseker. The public sidewalk in front of your home must be cleared after a snowfall.

Council is still working on our water problems. We still have yet to figure out why Beiseker is buying twice as much water from the Kneehill system than Irricana! Is it a metering error or a major leakage, or maybe a combination. We've got to find out! We're starting our investigation at the #2 Pumphouse (on the south side of ninth street where it meets the CNR tracks) and moving out from there. Stay tuned!

The Water Crisis

The village's Public Works staff is still working on the loss of water issue. We've found a couple of small leaks or discrepancies in the system, but we still can't account for all the water we lose each month.

Every municipal water system has a certain amount of loss, but not nearly as high as Beiseker's! My compliments go to our Public Works staff who have braved some pretty nasty weather trying to track down some of this missing water.

The Kneehill Regional Water Services Commission is still in communication with the provincial government in hopes a new water fee schedule can still be worked out. Right now the seven municipalities in the commission are really hurting while trying to cover these huge expenses created, in part, when the commission was not allowed to sell its water to waiting customers!! Stay tuned!