BOWDEN - The Town of Bowden has seen a gigantic drop in its water costs this year since it hired a company to stop leaks by lining about half of its manholes in the community.
Town council learned of those savings during a recent regular meeting.
Interim chief administrative officer Jacqui Molyneux told council the town consumed 17,770 cubic metres in August and 7,822 in September.
"We've already seen a big reduction in our water," she told councillors. "We figured it out; if it stays around this year, we could save about $190,000 a year."
This past spring, council was told that runoff was causing wastewater bills to soar as that water entered the sewer system through manholes.
Because the work is costly, council authorized the town to line about 50 of its 100 manholes this year with a polyethylene product.
Molyneux and Mayor Robb Stuart told council the "worst ones" have been dealt with so far.
The company that did the work was Top Shot Concrete Systems, a Saskatoon-based firm, at a cost of $269,377.50.
The town covered the cost from its $280,000 wastewater pipeline rehabilitation budget.
"It's really helped. It's, like, dropped in half," she added.
