With about 85 per cent of single-family homes now hooked up with water meters and backflow prevention devices, the Town of Gibsons says the project has gone remarkably smoothly.
So smoothly, in fact, council amended the contract with Neptune Technology Group Ltd., the company hired to install water meters in single-family homes, to extend the contract to multi-family dwellings.
Dave Newman, director of engineering for the Town, said Neptune's costs for the single-family units were lower than expected, allowing them to take on the multi-family buildings as well for a "fairly minimal increase in overall contract cost."
During the time the tender package was being prepared in early 2008, council made the decision to include the installation of multi-family meters and cross connection control under the same program, but it took several months of research before Newman's department was able to recommend extending the contract.
As for the installations, Newman said things have gone very smoothly, garnering few complaints and incidents.
One of the common concerns in the community before installation began in March was that the backflow prevention devices, which were mandated by Vancouver Coastal Health, could potentially damage home hot water tanks or plumbing systems. Newman said those incidents have been few and minor.
"We've had somewhere between six and eight pretty minor issues of private plumbing systems being affected. We've been able to address them very quickly, and in every instance, the Town has paid for that," Newman said.
Newman said his department is still researching what options multi-family dwellings will have to make payments, as stratas and apartments will still only have one meter installed for the entire building.
Newman said some multi-family buildings in other communities have opted to sort water bills by persons per unit or square footage or divide the bill equally amongst all the unit owners. Others, he said, have chosen to privately install individual meters for each unit.
Newman said there had been some unease about a storage yard being used by Neptune near the corner of Gower Point Road and Franklin Road, for being unsightly.
"The time that that is going to remain there at Gower Point and Franklin, the days are numbered because [Neptune] is just about complete," Newman said.
While single-family residences should all be connected within a few weeks and multi-family ones to begin shortly after, the Town won't begin charging meter rates until 2011. The whole of 2010 will be used to collect data on water usage and council has committed to using the average water consumption per house in 2010 as the benchmark for 2011 rates, said Newman.
Newman said the meters will give residents more control over their own water use and costs which can be a boon to both conservation and the pocketbook.
"Water conservation is an extremely important concept to have the public support and have their water consumption reflect that," he said. "It's a much more equitable way of paying for what you're using - same as Hydro does. You can take those cost savings or water conservation measures and see a direct reward for it."
