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February 25, 2011 Peachland, BC
Volume 07 | Number 08
Kelowna-Westside
An independent member broker
City workers don pink in support of anti-bullying day Municipal staff show their support for Pink Shirt Day on Wednesday, February 23. Pink Shirt Day is an opportunity to increase public awareness on bullying, and to demonstrate that we are part of the solution and won’t tolerate bullying any longer. Top row, left to right: Linda Nicholas, Mirjam Glass, Paul Dupuis, Donna Deiaco, Elsie Lemke, Doug Allin, Polly Palmer, Linda Rich, Erin Boyes, Melanie Reynolds and Doug Pryde. Bottom Row: Cheryl Wiebe, Fire Chief Grant Topham and Pelma Haffenden. Photo Mike Giroard
Water meter numbers are in after one year of paid usage By Cindy Fortin The figures are in for 2010, the fi rst full year of paid water usage by Peachland residents, and it seems that a little pain in the pocketbook did the trick. In 2009, the year that only mock water bills were mailed out, the annual total of Imperial Gallons (IGal) used was 663,531,500. Before the mock bills, in 2008, the number was 671,018,250 IGal, a drop of about 7.5 million. Not a huge reduction. In comparison, in 2010
when actual bills for water usage arrived in the mail and residents had to begin to pay quarterly for their personal consumption, the number dropped substantially to 483,640,550 IGal. That’s a drop of a 179,890,950 IGal from the previous year, or a reduction of approximately 27 per cent. City Director of Operations Doug Allin presented the numbers early this week at the February 22 Committee of the Whole meeting in council chambers, and was pleased with the results.
“It’s really outstanding. Reducing our consumption by nearly 180 million gallons is a huge achievement for our community,” says Allin. The numbers are even more impressive if you consider water consumption figures from 1995, which topped 1 billion. In 2010, we used half that much. “It is interesting, since the population has grown since then, but we’ve used less water,” says Allin, who credits much of that reduction to great community understanding of conser-
vation. There are some discrepancies between the figures calculated from individual residential meters and the overall consumption read from the bulk meters. While the bulk meters showed 483 million IGal of usage, the actual Neptune water meters read only 290,246,460 IGal, which leaves a difference of about 193 million. Unmetered withdrawals from the water system could be due to fi re hydrant use, system, sewer, and culvert flushing, unaccounted for irrigation,
incorrect meter readings, and usage by Parks and District facilities. There is also always some unknown leakage into the ground and the city is constantly repairing all water mains, as well as illegal meter bypassing, which has already surfaced in Peachland. While lower residential water usage is a good thing, it did mean a shortfall in projected operational revenue. The total revenue projected for the water operating fund in 2010 was approximately $1.59 million, which included money from user
fees, parcel taxes and grants. That number came in at $1.38 million. A budgetary shortfall of just over $200,000. For that reason, the projected budget for 2011 had to be reconciled to reflect new considerations. But overall, lower water consumption is a good thing, and Allin is pleased with the results: “It has shown us areas where we can improve and reduce consumption. With this information it really provides the community with a good measuring stick of where we’re going.”
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