Sylvan Lake upgrading its water meter program

Joanne Gaudet, Communications Coordinator for the Town of Sylvan Lake, says they’ve been transitioning to a monthly utility billing system over the past year.

“Currently, we’ve been doing an actual read every other month with an estimate in between. Then if there are any costs that need to be adjusted during the actual read, we would adjust that during the next invoice,” she explains.

“Obviously we want to provide quality services to residents. We want to meet the needs of residents and we also want to make financial decisions that reflect that vision as well.”

As a result, Gaudet says the full-time water meter reader will now be able to do an actual read each month, thereby reducing the impact for some residents who see an estimated longer-term average on their utility bills.

“In the past we’ve obviously been doing the estimate every other month. Now it’s an actual read, and it’s reflective of the actual water-use,” she points out. “You don’t need to maybe pay more than what you’ve actually used or less than what you’ve actually used. Hopefully it increases service to the residents there and helps them better budget and prepare.”

Another key change is the replacement of close to 3,000 water meters over the next five years. A contractor will be hired to provide and install 250 new meters this year, with 500 more to be added in each of the next five years.

“We’ve been doing an annual meter replacement program for a number of years and we budget annually,” says Gaudet. “What this adjustment means is that we’re supplementing it somewhat more in the next year or two so that we can actually replace more than what we originally planned for in 2019.”

Once the new readers are in place, Gaudet says walkups to the property won’t be required as meters will be read electronically from a distance.

“What that means is if there are any concerns with the meter, we can pull up the data from that meter and the amount of time that it’s been installed and better read what’s going on in your household,” she explains. “The meters themselves, we don’t have concerns with. Again, just that ‘actual versus estimated’ read was causing some concern that maybe the meters weren’t reading, but it was just a matter of educating residents on how our system was working.”

Gaudet says the new system will provide more certainty for both the Town and its residents.

“It’s much easier for us to not only do the reads, but to also pull up the household data and review water use and really quickly identify whether there’s potentially a leak in the home that’s causing increased water use or identify if the meter hasn’t been working properly,” says Gaudet. “Again, if they’re not working, it usually works in favour of the resident. This was a response directly to the feedback we’ve received from residents.”

Funding for the additional water meter reader has been approved at $50,000 for six months in 2019, then $100,000 annually.

“It’s not that they’re making $100,000 per year but that takes into consideration a lot of other costs associated with the employment of a person,” she explains. “I have seen that conversation pop up. It’s everything from equipment to salary and benefits.”

Gaudet says water conservation is the biggest message they’re hoping to get across to residents.

“The reality is water is a very valuable commodity,” she exclaims. “To be able to provide consistently quality water, we’re really trying to educate the population on conserving. We have a number of really good conservation programs from our toilet rebate program, to our rain barrel rebate program and being cognizant of how much water we’re using.”

by Sheldon Spackman

Sylvan Lake upgrading its water meter program

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