Water Meters 101 - In Light of the Decision Coming Soon...

Update March 11th: Radio NL reporting that water meter report with options coming to city council next Tuesday, Mar 16th. Decision might be made then...

Dear readers, I am trying my hand at summarizing, in 400 words or less, some of the key issues in Kamloops. I welcome your thoughts on if the below summary on the water meter debate in our community is easy to understand and balanced. If you know a lot about the issue, did I miss any key points? If you don't know a lot about the issue, did this summary give you a broad understanding?

Preamble

Water meters have been a controversial issue in Kamloops for many years. City Council has again been discussing this issue with a view to making a decision soon on mandatory metering. I attempt here to provide an overview with a brief introduction of the mandatory metering issue and then a list of the major pros and cons of water meters. I end with links to more information.

I should say, up front, that I support water meters but I have tried here to be as even handed as I can be.

Introduction
Kamloops has high water consumption rates. Statistics from City Hall indicate the Kamloopsians use an average of 800 Litres of water a day. The Canadian average for unmetered water systems is 467 Litres and, for metered systems, is 266 Litres. In Kelowna, which has mandatory meters, the daily average of 587 Litres.

The main impetus for water meters comes not so much from a concern about water supply, but from the costs associated with maintaining the pipes and pumps that distribute water around the community. Summer time use is the major concern, when some days the average household consumes 2000 Litres a day. When we have days like that, our pipe and pump capacity hit virtually 100%. The choice is between reducing our water consumption or increasing our pipe and pump capacity.

Potential Pros of Water Meters
Proponents of water meters believe that we should have user pay for water and that water meter installation will save money for the community, as a whole, in the medium to long term. They also talk about the ethic of conservation as opposed to consumption.

Potential Cons of Water Meters
Opponents of water meters believe that there are other ways of reducing water consumption, are concerned that there will be a loss of aesthetic beauty of lawns and gardens in the our desert like climate, think that water meters will be more costly, and feel that lower income households will be impacted unfairly. Many also feel that the community decision against water meters in a referendum held in 2001. There is a concern about the privatization of our water system and the potential consequences of people not being able to afford water. City Councils, however, past and present, have expressed as a whole that they would not support privatization of a metered system.

Comments

[Dimas Carvalho]

Nothing to do with water consumption, but rather a way to extract dollars from the ratepayers. When water quantities being metered are not what the city estimators expect, your water and sewer rates will increase. I have not heard anyone tell us that our present taxes will be reduced by x amount of dollars and this will be replaced by water and sewer rates instead. Guess what, council sees a good short term cash cow, far as I'm concerened, take the money that you save by not installing water meters and use it to upgrade the water treatment facility to cope with the city expansion.

[Arjun Singh]

Thanks for your comment Dimas Carvalho. You may have already done so, but just in case I'd suggest you contact council with your concern. citycouncil@kamloops.ca / mayor@kamloops.ca