By Sheldon Spackman

Inflated water bills a problem in Sylvan Lake, woman says

Feb 5, 2019 | 2:50 PM

A Sylvan Lake woman is calling for an investigation into possible issues with the Town’s water meters and water billing for residents.

Dusty Weaver-Chaboyer says her issue began in the summer of 2017 when she received a bill from the Town for over $600, alleging 199 cubic metres of consumption, something she describes as an error yet to be rectified.

“I’m a renter of this residence, I’m not the sole owner of this house,” she explains. “So the responsibility was on both of us to pay this bill. But they (Town) had made an error in the reading a month or two before that because they had said it was outstanding then and they made a mistake, so they called to fix it.”

A month or two later, Weaver-Chaboyer says she and her family of five received the bill showing 199 cubic metres of water use.

“We had suggested that they take the meter and put a new one in,” she says. “It was going to cost $300 at that time in order for them to see if it was faulty or not and that was on the responsibility of us to pay for and if it was wrong, we get our money back. But if the meter was right, then it would be put towards the bill.”

DON'T WASTE IT

Lacombe encouraging residents to treat water as precious resource

1h ago

Ground School Training

New aviation career pathway elevates opportunities for students

11h ago

4-7 p.m. Wednesday

City to host downtown parking feedback session

13h ago

Weaver-Chaboyer says there are others in the community going through similar issues with their water bills.

“The flooding amount of messages that I have gotten from people with kind of the same scenarios going on, there’s water bills going to buildings that don’t even have water going to them, apparently. It’s kind of scary but since we got the new meter put in the house in 2017, we’ve not had an issue with our bill.”

With her own 2017 water bill still outstanding, Weaver-Chaboyer says she would like to see these issues addressed properly.

“I think that an investigation would have to be made through the Town office,” she adds. “There’s too many residents that have come forward with the same problem that I would really like to see it rectified somehow. I really just want to make it better for everybody.”

Although not able to speak specifically to Weaver-Chaboyer’s case, Joanne Gaudet, communications coordinator for the Town of Sylvan Lake, says the best advice she can give is to contact the Town directly if issues arise.

“We can investigate, we can send someone out to read the water meter and work with them to determine whether or not there is an issue with the bill,” says Gaudet. “From what I’m aware of, there is some conversation on some Facebook pages which is great. However, without contacting us we don’t know what those concerns are. Because we haven’t really received a flux or an increase of concerns at this point, I can’t say what any of these other concerns are.”

Gaudet admits, though, utilities can sometimes be an issue for many communities.

“We’re making major changes in how we provide safe drinking water and how we provide wastewater and how we protect the environment,” she explains. “The infrastructure needs of Sylvan Lake are well documented. For the last few years we’ve had to make some increases but that being said, for this year in 2019 we did not increase utility rates.”

Gaudet adds, however, that residents still need to be cognizant of how much water they’re using.

“Unfortunately, it is a very valuable commodity and we need to ensure that we’re reducing the use,” states Gaudet. “So we do have some great rebate programs available on our website at sylvanlake.ca and we’ve got a few tips on how to reduce wastewater. However, these concerns are related to something far greater and I understand that so I would encourage them to contact the Town of Sylvan Lake directly so that we can work with them.”