Water meters coming to your home

[TylerM4]

So it's been announced a few weeks ago - DOLC is implementing water metering across the district. All residential homes will have meters in place by 2016, with the process of installing meters starting this year.

Personally, I'm not too concerned about the metering. Tho I do wish they'd meter the big users (agriculture, golf/commercial, etc).

I do have some questions about the meter install process tho. Wondering if anyone has seen this happen in other cities, etc and can shed some light.

My questions:
- Water line enters in the center of my basement. My old house had a meter, but it was against an exterior wall with a little "peephole" for the meter reader to look through. It was obviously an old system - but worked. What are they going to do with my current house? Getting a meter on an exterior wall is going to represent significant cost/renovations. I suspect that they are going to install smart meters that transmit a wireless signal - anyone know for sure? If not, am I expected to let a meter reader inside multiple times a year to take a reading?
- Will the DOLC pay all costs associated with installing a meter? My home probably won't be too bad (if a wireless meter is used). But I could see access problems occuring in many homes - Will they pay all costs (e.g. Drywall repair, re-framing, etc)? Or just the cost of the meter and install of the meter?
- Does anyone know the details of how the billing will work? Flat rate + rate per liter? Currently we're on different rates based on the water source - will this stay the same?
- My irrigation system is connected to the main line feeding my house. The connection happens underground and near the road. It appears to have been this way since the house was built in 91. How are they going to meter this? A 2nd meter? Re-route the plumbing so that the irriagation is fed from the house (after the meter in the house)? If so - who pays for all of that plumbing work?

Questions probably better asked directly to DOLC - but figured I'd ask here 1st.

[LoneWolf_53]

Questions you likely won't get a straight answer to from DOLC, and whatever you are told, rest assured when the dust settles it will be different, but what you can count on is your bill going up.

[LordEd]

The ones in vernon have a wire run outside to a reader box (small, only a few sq in)

[RVThereYet]

I went through that process about 10+ years or so ago in Vernon when it went from a flat rate billing (like we have here now) to a metered pay for what you use system. I liked it back then because my bills went down significantly as compared to the flat rate billing. I had to purchase the meter from the city, if memory serves me right, it was around $70, and I had to pay to have it put in. I forget the portion of the cost for the meter install because I had some additional plumbing work done at the same time, but I think it took around 1/2 hour and was a simple process NOTE: It definitely did not take 3-4 hours like some here may have you think it takes just like when installing electric smart meters ;-).

In all likelihood your DLC meter will be a wired meter that can be read from the outside of your home (see LordEd's post), that's what it ended up being for me in Vernon, and that's what is installed in my new house here, so my guess is you will get the same. Now, I'm not sure that the remote readability qualifies it as a "smart" water meter, but if it does, the good thing is that when it catches on fire (like many of the electric smart meters are), it starts to leak water and self-extinguishes itself, therefore your insurance rates should go down slightly ;-).

Billing will be based on what you use measured in cubic meters, however, there may still be a minimum charge, though I think that would be BS as it should be solely based on what you use, the more you use, the more you pay!

[TylerM4]

Thanks all.

Yes, I suspect that the DOLC doesn't even know the answers to some of these questions as they likely haven't thought this all of the way through yet.

In Vernon they made the homeowners pay for the cost of the retrofit? So, not only a $650 water bill this year - i'm going to be on the hook for the cost of a water meter install?

A wire to a remote reader - didn't even think about that but it makes a lot of sense. Still not sure how it would be possible to run even a single wire withour reno's to my finished basement, but certainly a lot easier than running plumbing and placing the meter itself on an outside wall.

[jasond_71]

I agree the cost to install it was very minimal, under $100 I think. All they do is run a small wire from the meter to somewhere outside. They just fish the wire through the floor joist, I don't think it would be difficult or costly.

The shock for you guys in Lake Country will be your water bill once it is installed. The water bill in Vernon and Coldstream does included sewer but my quarterly bill has never been under $270 and in the summer when you want to water the lawn it goes up to $500 ( and I don't water the lawn that much, it basically goes off yellow in the summer). So that is over $1000 a year for water and sewer. I don't know if that is expensive to other cities or not?

[Carrs Landing Viking]

There will not be a water meter coming to my house any time soon. Haha

Where I live in Carrs Landing, we are not a part of the DLC Master Water Plan. We are on a private water utility.

Idiot Baker and Co. bought up most private utilities, with the exception of ours. Baker made sure the DLC bought up the private utility, where he resides in Carrs Landing though.

Baker also goes on to say " ALL RESIDENTS " of Lake Country will have safe and clean water. What a load of bs.

Time to vote this pile of trash out of office, as they are all completely self serving.

[danmartin]

I agree the cost to install it was very minimal, under $100 I think. All they do is run a small wire from the meter to somewhere outside. They just fish the wire through the floor joist, I don't think it would be difficult or costly.

The shock for you guys in Lake Country will be your water bill once it is installed. The water bill in Vernon and Coldstream does included sewer but my quarterly bill has never been under $270 and in the summer when you want to water the lawn it goes up to $500 ( and I don't water the lawn that much, it basically goes off yellow in the summer). So that is over $1000 a year for water and sewer. I don't know if that is expensive to other cities or not?

Just to answer your question on what other people pay, out here in Carrs Landing the water rate has gone up to $74/month. It was $10/month in the early 1990 when the owner of the system wanted to increase it the community was up in arms and he didn't get the increase he wanted. The provincial government allowed an increase to $18/month. If my memory serves me correctly this was around 1995. This does not include sewer as that isn't available so we must pay for and maintain septic systems. I imagine that metered water will be more expensive for most or they wouldn't bother if it was less expensive. Looking down the road when Okanagan Lake is more polluted and more water treatment is needed the cost for water will go through the roof.

[Shawner]

Found this FAQ on the District site: http://www.okanaganway.ca/frequently-as ... -metering/

Short answers to your questions and some examples from here in Peachland

- Yes, they transmit a radio signal. Readers will not need to enter your house unless a repair or manual check is required.

- Cost: single family residential and agricultural installation is free. In Peachland, the installer (Neptune) also built small boxes around the meters if they stuck out into the room at all, etc, all free to the resident. This might be different for you (see last point below)

- In Peachland, we pay a flat rate of $55.50 / quarter + consumption ($0.35 / m3). Anything over 400 m3 and you have to pay an inflated rate ($0.55 I think?). They ran a year of "mock billing" to allow us to monitor use prior to changing the way we were billed.

- If you have an irrigation connection prior to the line entering your house, they'll probably install a meter pit at the property line (prior to the irrigation tee). The FAQ notes that "There may be a charge to properties that require a meter pit due to their internal plumbing configuration or poor quality piping."

[TylerM4]

Thank you shawner. FAQ is quite helpful.

So.. they are going to be broadcasting a radio signal!

sanfish: I'm curious. This is basically another smart meter although I dont know if they are aware of the current date and time (so may not be all that smart). The RF is still there, and thats what everyone seems to be so concerned about. What is your perspective? Are you as concerned with these water meters?

[LordEd]

If you really want to bring up RF arguments, please first state:

1. Have you removed all of the following from your home?
- Cell phones
- Microwave Oven
- Cordless phones
- Wireless Router
- Baby monitors
- Wireless toys (helicopter, cars, etc)
- Home Entertainment Systems with RF remote controls (not IR)
- Remote Controlled Garage Door

2. Do you avoid all of the locations on this map (marked in blue) at all times?:
http://www.shaw.ca/wifi/hotspots/

[TylerM4]

Not sure who you are directing this to LordEd. I'm not concerned about RF.

[step_one]

WHERE IS THE WATER METER FOR THESE GUYS?????
Nestle bottles millions of litres of Canadian water — and pays nothing
Billion-dollar company extracting B.C.’s drinking water for free, then selling it back to Canadians
The price paid by the world’s largest bottled water company for taking 265 million litres of fresh water every year from a well in the Fraser Valley —NOT A CENT!!!!!!!!!!

Because of B.C.’s lack of groundwater regulation, Nestlé Waters Canada — a division of the multi-billion-dollar Switzerland-based Nestlé Group, the world’s largest food company — is not required to measure, report, or pay a penny for the millions of litres of water it draws from Hope and then sells across Western Canada.

[xjeepguy]

WHERE IS THE WATER METER FOR THESE GUYS?????
Nestle bottles millions of litres of Canadian water — and pays nothing
Billion-dollar company extracting B.C.’s drinking water for free, then selling it back to Canadians
The price paid by the world’s largest bottled water company for taking 265 million litres of fresh water every year from a well in the Fraser Valley —NOT A CENT!!!!!!!!!!

Because of B.C.’s lack of groundwater regulation, Nestlé Waters Canada — a division of the multi-billion-dollar Switzerland-based Nestlé Group, the world’s largest food company — is not required to measure, report, or pay a penny for the millions of litres of water it draws from Hope and then sells across Western Canada.

Nestle does that all over the USA as well ( even in counties where there is severe drought ) . One of the worst corporations around ! There's a good documentary on Netflix that goes into the detail on what they do .

[LordEd]

They are extracting and filtering the water themselves. Should they pay something? Probably. That would mean homeowners on wells would also have to pay.

You're paying because the water is being delivered to you. If you dig a well and treat it yourself, you wouldn't.