Water Meters - The Final Word?

The past month or so has been partly taken up with a "discussion" about putting a water meter inside a new house being built in the Subdivision. In the past few days, we've received information that appears to decide the whole issue.

Our Regional District does have a view on meters. Essentially their view is that each water utility makes its own by-laws (regarding other matters as well as meters). Meters are slowly being adopted in some communities but there is opposition despite their obvious value. It could be noted that our Society overwhelmingly voted to adopt water meters at the 2007 AGM. We received a grant that covered most of the cost of the project, we used the meters for a whole year before bringing in a new rate structure in 2010 and we reported this to all members as the project unfolded.

Our information is that water meters are not considered to be plumbing fixtures and do not have to be CSA approved. They are, instead, part of the water distribution system which PRWUS owns and operates.

The meters we use ARE certified to the following standards: ANSI/NSF 61 (which specifies the level of lead allowed in the copper alloy meter body) and AWWA C-700 (which specifies the accuracy of the meters). Our Trident T-10 meters (manufactured by Neptune) have a no-lead copper alloy body and are displacement-type meters common in residential applications. Measurement Canada recommended in 2004 that the AWWA standard be adopted for all meters.

The meters themselves are highly unlikely to leak, despite any rumours that there have been leaks. We are not aware of ANY leaks related to any of our installations. The meters have a one-piece alloy body with a base held on by robust bolts and two seals. The only chance of leaks might be from connections to the plumbing system, as there might be with any other pipe joint. We have had one case of a meter making a squeaking noise. This was traced to a small circular magnet rubbing on the inside of the housing, an issue that was easy to fix.

The result of all this kafuffle is that we now have a statement from the Regional District that we can make our own decisions regarding water meters and that they are not a concern to the building inspectors. It is unfortunate that a small, vocal minority continues to oppose meters, but we feel our experience has been positive and has been shown to be the only fair way to allocate the cost of the water being delivered.

This may not be "the final word" but it does seem to move the whole discussion forward in a favourable direction.

Repairs at the Reservoir - September 28/11

Many of you will know that we've had a water leak at the reservoir for some time now. On Wednesday, a small crew of volunteers fixed the leak and cleaned the reservoir.

There have been several reasons why we've put up with this leak for as long as we did. Among them was the difficulty in figuring out where the leak was coming from. At first, we thought it was a leaky drain valve. Then we became convinced that the overflow system was leaking, possibly through a crack in a corroded cast iron pipe.

Then there was the difficulty in finding the right materials to make the repairs, once again not being absolutely sure where the leak was coming from. Obviously, we weren't able to drain the reservoir every time we wanted just to have a look, so we had to prepare for whatever we might find.

In the end, we made a custom 6-inch plug for the drain hole (shown in the bottom picture) and had materials on hand to fix any leak in the overflow pipe, should we find such a hole when we drained the reservoir.

I can report that the leak was from the main reservoir drain valve and that the custom plug fixed the problem, as well as a good tightening of the valve. The repair crew also cleaned up the overflow pipe and wrapped it with materials that should help protect it. The cleaning should last us a couple of years so this is certainly one job we are happy to have completed.

Thanks to the repair/cleaning crew of Gerda, Jason, Hugh, Dave and Effie, and to Doug for his help earlier in the morning when we were testing the drain plug.

This project will pretty much bring to an end the maintenance season for this year. All of the really important jobs were completed with a few things left over for next year. Thanks to those who helped on the projects we did do this season and to those on water teams, the volunteers who take water samples and test for chlorine and generally help keep the system running.

Those Water Meters Again!

With a new house being built in our subdivision, the first in a few years, there has been some "discussion" about water meters, specifically where they should go.

When water meters first went in about 3 years ago, most were placed in the most sensible location: inside the houses, in the basements, where they are protected from frost, corrosion and where the owner can see them. To accommodate a few property owners, and an even smaller number of uncooperative property owners, a small number of meters were placed in boxes out by the street valve. Entirely the wrong place to put such things, but, there you are. More expense, more maintenance, less safety....

This morning, one new owner and I moved one of these "pit meters" inside to the basement. The job took the usual 2 hours, but we're on the way to taking the meters out of this box (shown in the photo above) and placing them in their respective basements. The photo shows why such street locations are the wrong way to go: the boxes rot, the hole starts to cave in and any fixes are expensive and time-consuming, not to mention such holes as significant safety hazards. In my mind, they need to go, as soon as possible.

RDCK Concerned about New Water Regulations

[as reported in The Valley Voice, June 15, 2011].

Earlier in June, Interior Health's Medical Health Officer met with RDCK's Rural Affairs Committee. It appears that most of the discussion centered around drinking water, specifically the new water regulations and the pressure those regulations will put on small communities and small water systems.

If anyone wants to see the effect of these new regulations, one needs go no further than the South Slocan, where a very expensive system is now in place (rumored to have cost in excess of $1 million). Never mind that almost no-one there wanted the new system; they have it now and will be paying for it. In part, this happened because the South Slocan water system was to be taken over by RDCK. Pressure was applied by Interior Health on the Regional District to fix the system so it met the standards of the Drinking Water Protection Act. Against many objections, the work was done.

It might be worth pointing out that the new regulations require two methods of treatment. Our system, owned and operated by PRWUS, has that kind of arrangement, a filtration system down to 1 micron and a chlorination system. We also monitor chlorine levels on a daily basis and water samples are sent in regularly to be tested for the presence of bacteria and other pathogens. So, for the time being, our system meets the requirements set out in the new regulations under the Drinking Water Protection Act.

I think it's clear from this that the Government is prepared to insist that drinking water quality across the province be improved. It's simply not going to be good enough to argue that "we've drunk the water from that lake (river, bog, whatever) for years and never had a problem with it". It's also clear that the Government won't be paying for these improvements, where they are needed. Our view is that it's always good to stay ahead of these things and never get in the position of having to play catch-up with the whims of Governments. Like most things connected with Government, they usually cost you money.

'Tis The Season

Not a phrase commonly used at this time of year, although with freak snowstorms happening in many parts of the country, who knows?

No, this marks the beginning of the 2011 maintenance season for PRWUS. Other than for emergency repairs, we always hope that anything major will be kind enough to wait until spring/summer/fall. Despite the cool weather we've experienced this spring, it's time to start getting into the mood for fixing things.

The full list of proposed projects, plus a record of what we've done for the past 2 seasons, is on our website.

Thanks to all the work done in the past 2 years, the list for 2011 is substantially smaller and includes a new roof for the treatment building, some finishing touches to the cliff water line box and some miscellaneous painting and general fixing up. With any luck,, then, it should be an easier summer for all of us.

Another Year Passes

The New Year has arrived, and besides the usual end-of-year hype, the date marks our first full year with water meters, consumption-based water rates and our new billing system. One of the most noticeable things is the big variation in water use between households. Not that this has been any surprise, but it reinforces the importance of households paying for what they use, just as we do for other commodities and services. Households using less are paying less. Households using more water are paying more. It's much more fair to everyone and also provides an incentive to be more aware of how much water we are using.

The time and money invested in system repairs over the past year indicate once again the costs of keeping our water system running safely and efficiently. Thanks to everyone who contributed to the system: Board members, maintenance team members, water team members; by fixing things, taking water samples, cleaning filters, making decisions about system operations, monitoring water levels, and so on.

Happy New Year.

Water Volume...By the Numbers

I was playing around with some numbers earlier today and came up with the following possibly interesting facts:

All of the main waterline from the Treatment Building up to the reservoir and down to the beginning of Pineridge Rd is 6" plastic pipe. Each 100 meters of this pipe will hold about 1766 litres. That's 1.77 m3 (cubic meters). For the metrically challenged, that's about 467 US gallons or 388 Imperial gallons. I haven't actually measured the approximate length of pipe our system would have, but it could be around 1 km (1000 meters)?

When we're filling the reservoir, we're pumping about 20 US gallons per minute. That's 1200 US gallons per hour or about 4500 litres (4.5 m3) per hour. That means it takes about 20 minutes to fill each 100 meters of our 6 inch plastic mainline.