updated Water Meter Invoices

2nd Quarter invoices posted today at this link.

Not surprisingly, fixed costs have gone up...note the 20-cent fixed cost increase for the clubhouse and residence!

Ahem.

"Amen," says Kia.

Sewer Bill Sympathy

EDIT:  Bob Spiers has done a masterful job of comparing sewer rates between Vernon and Coldstream.
The link is here.   Wow! Look at the comparison!

R.J. Johnston's letter to the editor hit the newspaper June 24th, 2016.
As you read the letter, it helps to adopt a similar tongue-in-cheek stance as the author obviously employed when writing it...


"Can you feel sadness for Mark Sandberg as he wonders why his water bill is so high?

I guess he wasn't around when the regional district first decided to grab even more money from we, the sheep, that populate and pay for their whims and extravagant schemes all in the name of improvements.

Originally, we were told that we would never pay for one drop more than we used if we spent gobs of money on water meters.  Too many saved water so that plan was amended to add a basic charge.  So much for that.

"...property taxes are less than

 what I pay for the water bill!"

R.J.Johnston

We were charged a basic amount for sewer use by the City of Vernon.  It didn't take them long to discover that even more money can be squeezed from the population by charging for how much water you use in the winter months as your actual use would be just for household use, i.e. whatever came from the tap went down the sewer (of course we all buy bottled water).

Another dim light came on when the realization came to light that if you were a snowbird you wouldn't have a sewer bill at all.  Not fair, except the solution wasn't made for two or three years.

These water meters were to last 50 years.  Somewhere there may be a few meters that go slow, so let's replace them with another round of waste and change them.

When you actually can find the person in charge, you will be told the funds for this will come from infrastructure we have been paying all along.  Instead of that, why not just not charge that extra amount in the first place?  Wait:  it is so that he/she can justify their existence?

When I got my property tax notice, I found that the taxes are less than what I pay for the water bill!

In their minds, that is an anomaly and somehow will be fixed.  Do you think the water bill will be reduced?  Doubt it?  Last words of wisdom for Mark:  Be careful for what you wish for."
                      R.J. Johnston

It appears the Morning Star likes to "save" letters, so that same topic letters generally appear in the same issue...interesting then that the following letter to the editor hasn't been published:

"Wait until Mark Sandberg (first quarter sewer billing, June 1/16 letter to editor) learns this!

Add this to your complaint about your quarterly sewer invoices being based on the first quarter’s usage:

Did you know that your first quarter water meter reading isn’t actually for the months of January, February and March?

Meters are actually read sometime in early December, again in early February.  That’s the first quarter period on which your sewer charges are based for the entire year.

By reading your meter around the first week of December, the “consumption” includes all your family’s Christmas visitors!

And of course, all visitors over the festive season flush your toilets.

The Greater Vernon Water utility regularly and routinely overcharges for services they are not providing...quarterly base water rates are proof.

The North Okanagan’s elected officials allow this customer gouging to continue year after year."

"...probably more important to print a similar-length letter about a near-miss traffic event," chuckles Kia.

Yeah, that's it.

The second letter was submitted 22 days ago... 

  

Why Duteau's a Dud

Water options aren't options.
They're a recipe for horrendous costs.

Basically it's a case of the old Vernon Irrigation District creating a Master Water Plan that creates a new Vernon Irrigation District!

"Two groups of consultants disagreed

 on the best course of action

 yet we were not allowed

 to have an independent agency

review the plan

 and no dissenting voice was allowed."

Repeat this to yourself:   "Duteau Creek is not an option for continued expensive domestic water supply."

Now say it louder!

SAC should ask themselves these questions:

• why do we have to get into the huge expense (VID mistake trying to sell water they did not have).

•  available water sources are:  Duteau with a miniscule watershed with seasonal water source, Kal Lake with a lot larger watershed plus aquifers and Okanagan Lake with a watershed covering most of the Okanagan Valley.  Which would be picked by astute people aware of a changing climate?

• consider the original water purveyors:  the Kal system providing 80% of domestic water and the VID system providing all of the irrigation water to all of its customers as well as  selling irrigation water for domestic consumption.  Had they continued to do so VID would have gone bankrupt trying to comply with domestic water treatment requirements.

• By attacking the problem at the roots we would have saved a lot of money.   We wasted a lot of money by not having a plan prior to constructing the Duteau  plant.  The two groups of consultants disagreed on the best course of action yet we were not allowed to have an independent agency to review the plan and no dissenting voice was allowed to provide information to SAC.

•  Look at the infamous way we collect water fees by subsidizing not only agriculture (the wrong way by spending money on treating water to be used for irrigation which neither helps the farmers nor the domestic customers!) but also ICI customers to the tune of $2.5 M.

An observer noted:

"At what point do stark differences in water costs

 impact the economic well-being

 and growth of the community?

 Retiring Canadians have many communities to choose from

 when locating to the Okanagan;

why pick the place with the highest cost water, and

 by implication, the poorest governance?"

Why indeed?

"Think, folks, how you will vote in the next water referendum," suggest Kia, adding "and how you'll vote in the next election."  

Many folks have expressed that view!

The Duteau system...highest vulnerability to climate change

"You are blessed with lots of water"...a water consultant stated during a SAC meeting

There'll be another blog post later today...with compelling snippets from Master Water Plan 2002...

...the MWP that SAC members didn't get to see...

Tier Tears

...tears that flow from eyes.

While GVW bureaucrats and GVAC directors blather on (see "Top Hat" blog story of today) about the 2 per cent GVW water rate increase -- which may in effect now come in as high as 9 or 10 per cent -- the juxtaposition of another Morning Star story in the same issue was almost laughable.

That is, if it hadn't been so sad.

What a difference in water rates is found 13 miles (21 kilometres) away!

Armstrong residents pay $113.83 per year for water.

GVW customers pay $101.80 per quarter!  for no consumption!

Today's story on Armstrong's water rates stated "we used to pay an average of $155 a year for water, the average under this (plan) will be $113.83.  That's quite a difference compared to $155," stated Armstrong councillor Shirley Fowler.

Holy crow!  We GVW customers pay $101.80 PER QUARTER IN BASE FEES ALONE!  no consumption included!

And tiers?  Armstrong continues to allow for 360 cubic metres of consumption at the lowest rate tier for both billing periods combined," stated Terry Martens of the city.

"Chris Pieper for mayor of Vernon and Coldstream, as well as GVAC chair/director and Board member," suggests Kia.

That's not the first time that's been suggested either...
Are you listening, GVW and GVAC and Board and Mayors????  

Thirteen miles might as well be in another solar system if we're talking about water rates!  

The GVW Mint

Holy crow, if business owners--indeed families--budgeted projects in the same manner as Greater Vernon Water, bankruptcies would be the norm versus exception.

One example was put before the Greater Vernon Advisory Committee for "early budget approval" on Thursday.

The project to extend the Kal Lake Water Intake was approved by GVAC in 2015, and entails raising the intake by 3.0m from the lake bottom to prevent turbid water (from seiches--strong wind events--that stir up the lake bottom) from entering the intake.  Combining that with a horizontal extension so the intake remains at 20m below the lake level would then solve the GVW problem of having to increase chemical treatment; indeed providing turbidity warnings to the public.

GVAC approved $200,000 for the project based on Greater Vernon Water's request.

Now...not a year later...that amount has ballooned.
By $185,000!
To  $345,800.

Greater Vernon Water is requesting a  72.9 per cent increase  over what GVAC approved.

Why does GVW need 73% more than they asked for scant months ago?

GVW reason?
"a consultant was selected and design commenced.  The subsequent construction estimate is based on 'more detailed design'."

More detailed design?
Huh?

What were they going to provide in the less detailed design...a backhoe-dug pit?

Greater Vernon Water should print their own money.

"Nah...they'd omit placing a number in alternate corners," suggests Kia.

Sugar Daddy GVAC is too embarrassed to call out GVW on it.

Loading the Bases

...the water base rate, that is.

While doing our family's year end paperwork, a couple of figures jumped out.

The residential base rate for GVW water for the 1st Q of 2014 was $80.50
The residential base rate for GVW water for the 1st Q of 2015 was $99.80
The residential base rate for GVW water for the 2nd Q of 2015 was $101.80 (water rate increases were effective April 1st...but as of 2016, increases are effective January 1st!)

Because they can.
How nice for Greater Vernon Water.


That's a  26.45962732919254  per cent increase in base rates in 15 months!

Simple...if you're Greater Vernon Water

"They're kicking themselves they didn't think of the standard calendar year a long time ago," offers Kia.

...and to think I'm sitting here waiting for the year end water consumption invoices to arrive (so I can finish my paperwork).
I don't think I want to see them.