It took three years and two councils but Mayor Tim Johnston's push to bring metered water to Thompson became a reality Dec. 29 when city council gave third and final reading approval in a 6-2 vote to Bylaw No. 1843-2010, which establishes water and wastewater rates effective Jan. 1.
Johnston, deputy mayor Charlene Lafreniere and councillors Dennis Fenske, Judy Kolada, Erin Stewart and Penny Byer voted in favour of the bylaw Wednesday night at a special council meeting on both second and third readings. Councillors Luke Robinson and Stellar Locker were opposed on both readings. A motion earlier in the evening by Robinson, seconded by Locker, to table the proposed bylaw before second reading was defeated in a 5-3 vote, the difference being Kolada, who ultimately supported the bylaw, voted in favour of tabling it. Coun. Brad Evenson was absent.
On Dec. 17, the Public Utilities Board issued Order No. 127/10 approving the City of Thompson's proposal to create a water and sew utility but did not accept the city's proposal for rates for the period 2011-2013. The board directed the city to re-file a revised rate schedule based on revised utility revenue requirements.
However, six days later, just two days before Christmas, the board issued Order 139/10 on Dec. 23, a further order setting interim ex parte - meaning an order issued without a public hearing and considering only the City of Thompson's application - water and sewer rates, which allows the city to start billing for water Jan. 1.
For 2011, council has set a so-called interim "commodity rate" of 62 cents per cubic metre for water and 47 cents per cubic metre for wastewater. However, customers, "notwithstanding the commodity rates," will only pay the "applicable minimum charges" in a schedule set in the bylaw.
For a residential customer with a 15-mm size meter, that works out to a total bill of $67.17 quarterly - comprised of a $50.82 customer service charge; commodity water charge of $9.30; and commodity wastewater charge of $7.05.
In a Dec. 29 memo to council, city manager Randy Patrick said it is "anticipated" the Public Utilities Board will hold formal public hearings in the fall to set final rates for 2012 and 2013.
Fewer than 100 Thompson residents have yet to arrange to have their water meters installed as required, Patrick told council.
Section 13 of Bylaw No. 1843-2010 makes an "allowance for prevention of freezing" for so-called "bleeders," customers who let the water in their water service lines "run continuously" in cold weather to prevent the lines from freezing. Most of the bleeders are residents living in trailers in the Old Burntwood Trailer Court (Cree Road, Ospwagon Drive, Elder Avenue, Pipe Road, etc.) where many experience perennial private water line freezing problems, Patrick said.
Wayne Koversky, director of public works, told council he's not aware of a main public water line ever freezing, leading Robinson to quip that can be chalked up maybe to the tremendous flow through them with the city's infamous multitude of annual water breaks.
Residents who wish to bleed their lines continuously looking for a break on billing need advance approval from the new water utility and the city may in some cases need to do an inspection before deciding on the request, Patrick said, although in the case of the Burntwood Trailer Court, he added, "we pretty much familiar with the issues there."
Once approved, the charge for bleeders, who allow "water to run continuously for any period of time to prevent water service lines from freezing" for the "current quarter shall be the average of the billings for the two previous quarters to the same customer, or to the same premises if the occupant has changed
Johnston used his mayor's traditional annual media lunch in January 2009 at the Mystery Lake Motor Hotel's Adventurers North dining room to send out a strong message that he was going to push hard to make water meters a reality. At the time, he said he hoped they would be in place by Dec. 31, 2009. He was only off by a year.
The mythology in Thompson, Johnston has said repeatedly, has always been that water is "free." That stems from the fact Vale has been supplying the city's water at no direct cost since Inco's founding December 1956 agreement with the province setting up Thompson, first as part of the Local Government District of Mystery Lake and later in 1966 as a town and since 1970 as a city.
The widely held notion that city residents enjoy free water - and very high quality, tasty potable drinking water to boot - is something Johnston, and former councillor Oswald Sawh, in particular, who did not seek re-election last fall, struggled passionately to disabuse Thompson taxpayers of after the October 2006 municipal election.
In an Oct. 15, 2007 report to council as chair of the infrastructure and public works committee, Sawh wrote, "It's important to note that there is a general misconception that water is free in Thompson because the water plant is owned by Inco, but even through the production of the water is not paid by the city, the distribution of it comes at a cost. The budgeted cost to the city for the water and sewer system for the current year is a little over $1.5 million."
While the water plant is owned by Vale and the production of the water is not paid for by local taxpayers, the distribution cost once the water moves beyond the Inco property line is paid for by the municipality at a cost about $1.3 million annually. Water supply and treatment will continue to be provided by Vale.
Thompson is one of a handful of municipalities in Manitoba not to have a water utility.
The new water utility will operate as a department of the City of Thompson rather than as a standalone corporation. A separate water and sewer utility, such as other municipalities in Manitoba have, means funding for the city's water infrastructure and control of revenue and expenses is independent from the city's general account.
A study completed in 2006 by Wardrop Engineering Inc. in conjunction with the Manitoba Water Services Board concluded "based on historical flow monitoring that the city had higher per capita sewage generation rate as a result of larger than normal amounts of water going into the sewage system. This rate was much higher than the typical rate found in the majority of other municipalities. The study concluded that this was to due to the residents and commercial businesses not being charged for water usage."
Vale estimated in 2007 that each Thompsonite uses on average about 605 litres of water per day. Environment Canada estimated the average Canadian uses 335 litres per day.
Until now, the city had no way of monitoring or identifying who was using how much water among almost 4,000 residential homes in Thompson.
The city has about 73,000 metres of watermains and an additional 70,000 metres of sewer lines.
City council unanimously approved a resolution Jan. 26, 2009 "to authorize administration to proceed with the creation of a water utility." The resolution was based on council accepting the CH2M HILL Thompson Water Utility Study from November 2008.
The total management and administration costs for the new $4-million water utility department at city hall were estimated last January to be $263,400 per year. Water utility billing will increase the administrative costs by about $68,400 per year, the city estimated then.
The City of Thompson also needs a new wastewater treatment plant and the province has made it crystal clear that until the city starts charging residents for water, there won't be any provincial money to help defray the estimated $15 to $20 million cost of a new wastewater treatment plant. Wastewater received at the treatment plant is dilute, which suggests that clean water is getting into the sewers, increasing the cost of sewage treatment.
Koversky says now the water meters are installed, the city will look for funding from the government for a new sewage treatment facility.
