High water users in the South Pender Harbour and Chapman Creek water systems will not precede the rest of their systems in moving to volumetric billing, for now.
Though “less than 5% of accounts use more than 30% of the water supply,” the investment of staff time to move select properties to metered rates outweighed the water savings, directors decided Nov. 14.
Earlier this fall, the SCRD board had asked staff to investigate options for expediting volumetric billing for high-use properties as a matter of water saving and fairness. Staff presented their findings to a committee of the whole last week.
The early transition would “most likely” delay the system-wide implementation schedule, according to a staff report, as it would require three weeks’ work at a minimum from key staff members to move the top one per cent of water users to volumetric billing.
Further, because the volumetric billing classification and rate structures aren’t yet set, new accounts would need to be created when the system-wide implementation comes about, risking confusion for customers.
There’s also no certainty that moving those users to volumetric billing will affect use in 2025 (the billing is set for implementation in 2026 in South Pender Harbour and 2027 in the Chapman system), said the staff report. The report also said the user fee revenue generated would be “marginal.”
The benefit gained from the early transfer is “really not worth it,” Elphinstone (Area E) director Donna McMahon said at the meeting, pointing to the staff burden. “And I’m not sure that it would accomplish very much,” she added.
Halfmoon Bay (Area B) director Justine Gabias concurred. “I think this would add a layer of complexity to an already complex project,” she said. “Our goal, I think, is to get to volumetric billing as fast as possible, and reading that this would actually delay, potentially, and the implementation of volumetric billing makes it not so palatable to me.”
Sechelt director Alton Toth echoed his counterparts’ points, adding, “If we find that it is disruptive or that there are problems, we can always revisit it at a later point.”
The top (metered) residential water user in the Chapman water system used 30,686 litres a day in the third quarter of 2023, according to the report’s accompanying data. The SCRD’s goal in the depths of summer, is 200 litres a day per resident. McMahon observed from the data that, “the vast majority of our residents are being very responsible about their water use.”
