Update2: it was pointed out that my math was off by a factor of 10. 1000 cubic meters of water = 1 million litres. Values have been corrected. Old values shown crossed out for clarity.
Update: a typographical error was corrected in the last section which was also expanded.
The Province of BC has decided on a price for water. That’s right a price for water.
To some on the anti- side of the water meter program argument this might come as news since many of them already thought the city was selling them water even though it was not. Well be careful what you wish for as the saying goes … and now their fears will come true.
The city will have to build in a price for the actual water flowing through the pipes in addition to the price of the pipes and pumps and overhead (also called infrastructure). They will do that because the city in turn will have to fork over to the province money for all the water it pumps out of the ground and moves to all of its customers.
Now because they all have meters the amount used by the commercial and industrial customers will be known. But the residential customers … oh that’s a different bottle of issues. The majority now have meters installed and measuring consumption. For those customers the city will know the actual usage and be able to calculate the individual contribution to the charges paid up stream to the province. The un-metered customers remain unmeasured however and that means their usage will only be guessable …
How will the city decide the water bills?
IF you do not have a meter would you agree to the city ‘guessing’ on your consumption and billing you accordingly?
IF you do have a meter with no garden and your neighbour with the big garden has no meter do you think they should pay the same as you?
Interesting times …
Clarity: 1,000 cubic meters equals 10,000,000 litres of water. Actually it’s 1,000,000 (thanks Gord)
Think about that price the next time you go to buy a bottle of water at the store.
If your bottle of water contains 500ml that’s 1/2 litre.
The company that made that had to pay 1 twenty two millionth of $2.29 for that water.
Maybe we could put that another way … if you paid the water company $1 for the half-litre bottle of water how many litres of water did that allow the water company to buy? 4,366,812 436,681. That’s over 4 Million Hundred Hundred Thousand liters for the same price you bought a half … or over 8 (closer to 9) million Hundred Thousand half liter bottles worth. Quite the business model, eh?
I think that in the 21st century we must find alternative existant energy production means to do things such as producing power to supply the city water pumping stations as most agree the bulk of the water cost is pumps, in regards to leaks trouble shooting there is many other ways to find them other than installing millions of dollars worth of metering equipment to achieve !!!! There is No shortage of water in GF period just irresponsible residents not closing taps and growing lawns and filling pools !Garden growers should get a carbon rebate as the food they grow saves transporting food to the grocery store using fuel etc…….
Les your points are valid but the math is off by a factor of 10. one thousand CM = 1 million litres no 10 million
And that’s what happens when I don’t use the tools at my disposal (spreadsheet for example).
Thanks for catching that Gord.