The City of Fernie is seeking a grant to cover the cost of installing water meters on every residential property in the community.
Project Engineer Joanna Line says metering can help residents cut down on water use.
“According to Environment Canada, flat rate customers use about 457 litres of water per capita per day, compared to volume-based customers who only use 268 litres per capita per day,” said Line.
“In Fernie, our estimates have shown that our per capita per day is over 1,500. Universal water metering has proven to reduce residential, industrial, commercial and institutional water consumption by 15 to 30 per cent.”
Director of Engineering and Public Works Dustin Haeusler says tracking water use will help Fernie detect leaks in its water system.
“53 per cent of the water we produce is leakage, which is very expensive to find, track down and replace. $5 million would be a drop in the bucket to put a dent in that,” said Haeusler.
“I’m not saying we shouldn’t do it, but it’s a long, multi-decade project to fix that problem. Continuing to curb use with elements like the water conservation bylaw works, but we’re running out of options and we’re left with repairing our assets and things like water meters.”
CAO Michael Boronowski says metering is one of the ways Fernie can get its water consumption under control.
“Water metering is one of the required standards for managing water use in a community and has, for well over a decade, mature technology employed throughout communities. Quite frankly, the City of Fernie is quite far behind in not having these installed,” said Boronowski.
“It’s an important piece of the puzzle for water users to know their role in water consumption.”
If approved, the grant would cover 100 per cent of the cost of installing water meters up to $5 million with a limit of 3,000 units.
City staff still need to fully flesh out the cost estimate, but Line believes it will be under that limit as Fernie has about 2,800 residential properties.
“To apply for the program, you need to put an actual dollar figure for the number of meters you’re going to install, the cost of installation, communication, engineering studies and the contingencies,” said Line.
“I went to a couple of info sessions about this grant and they said anything over 3,000 connections would probably cost over $5 million. At this point, we don’t have the proposal done, but it would be under the $5 million.”
If Fernie receives the grant funding, the cost of the units, installation and implementation of its water metering program will not impact the City’s budget.
Fernie has until January 30 to submit its application to the BC Ministry of Housing and Municipal Affairs’ Water Meter Pilot Project Grant.
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