Judie Steeves - Kelowna Capital News Published: January 19, 2010 6:00 PM
Homeowners within most of the South East Kelowna Irrigation District will be paying $114 more per year for water this year, about a third more than they did last year. Other than in the Hall Road area of SEKID, where they will pay $519 a year, residents will pay $399 annually, in order that funds can be set aside for future water quality improvements estimated at $18 million. Wells are the main source of water in the Hall Road area.Manager Toby Pike admitted it’s a big cost increase for residential customers, but he said, “We’ve been warning people to get ready for this. We’re working toward compliance with Interior Health requirements for improved water quality.” A dedicated portion of this year’s payments for water will go into a fund for capital projects such as those required to bring water quality up to the standard required by IH, he said. “We need to improve our water quality. The only point on which I disagree with IH is on the degree of urgency for those improvements,” commented Pike.
As well, the district plans to offer land for sale, including a 10-acre parcel of property it owns from a tax sale in the 1930s, which is expected to add $2 million or so to the improvement fund. He admitted he has heard from some customers about the rate increase, but he defended it, saying it’s only a dollar a day. “What would you do without it? Water was too cheap to begin with. This is not an exorbitant cost.” “There are lots of other things people pay more for that are not as vital as water,” he commented. Normally, the rates are set by the board to cover operating costs and leave enough to put towards keeping the infrastructure in shape, but there is a huge cost to bringing the system into line with health regulations, he said.
Although some water purveyors haven’t yet approved rates for the coming year, some are based on a metered rate while others are flat rate. A survey of local water systems showed the SEKID rates for this year would not be the highest in the Central Okanagan for 2010. District of Lake Country homeowners pay about $455 a year if they are not metered, or $395, plus a metered rate. In the Glenmore Ellison Improvement District, they pay about $400 for both taxes and tolls, an increase of two to three per cent over last year. In the Westbank Irrigation District, homeowners will go to a metered rate this year. Right now the toll and tax combined work out to charges of $430 a year for a single family home. In the Black Mountain Irrigation District, the charge is $372 annually, while in Peachland, residents pay either $283.24 and $319.75, depending on which of the two water systems they’re in, Trepanier or Peachland (Deep) Creek. In the Lakeview Irrigation District, homeowners pay a total of $277 a year. Rutland Waterworks, which relies on a system of wells rather than on surface water, charges $267 a year.
Kelowna residents, who pay based on metered rates that are on a sliding scale to encourage water conservation, pay a low of $202 annually—up to $240.96 with use of 50 cubic metres a month and $622.68 with use of more than 125 cubic metres a month. In West Kelowna, the new municipality has just taken over operation of three water systems from the regional district, but will take over the Lakeview and Westbank Irrigation Districts in the coming year. Of the three it currently manages, residents in the West Kelowna Estates area pay $298.04; Pritchard residents pay $220.76 and Sunnyside residents pay a combination of metered and flat rates that works out to about $280 a year.
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