The Town of Olds is losing $700,000 to $1 million worth of water a year, says the town's chief operating officer.
Doug Wagstaff made that statement during an Uptowne Olds committee meeting Wednesday (Feb. 10) in town council chambers, saying the problem is water loss and infiltration into sewers.
The issue of infiltration is similar to the one encountered in Innisfail, one the town is currently working diligently to remedy.
“We are constantly looking at new ways to beat the problem,” said Innisfail Mayor Brian Spiller.
Wagstaff said water loss and infiltration is a big issue in Olds because, as part of the South Red Deer Regional Wastewater system, the town pays for every cubic metre of water that runs through its sewer lines to Red Deer, where it's treated.
“That's a lot of money, when we're saying a one per cent tax increase is $80,000,” Wagstaff said.
“That's becoming our number 1 priority. Because if we can capture even half of that seven hundred thousand to a million dollars a year that we're either literally flushing one way or the other – either out or in – that's a significant savings to us all, either in reinvestment or just not having to raise taxes.”
“It could be great rainwater but we still have to pay for it.”
He said the town plans to utilize provincial municipal sustainable infrastructure funding dollars to track down where that water loss is.
Wagstaff said as far as they can tell, the problem appears to be with sewer/water infrastructure in a part of town built primarily in the 1980s.
He said one part of the problem appears to be that some homeowners are directing water from their sump pumps into the sewer. Water main breaks and leaks appear to be other parts of the problem.
He said there's a reason it's believed cracks in the pipes are an issue.
“We know that's happening somewhere because when we have rain events, we're metering the sewer going out. You get a rain event and it goes up,” Wagstaff said.
“It's kind of like playing a great big game of – there used to be an app you had on your phone, I think it was called ‘pipes.' It's just like playing a real-life game of that – trying to find out where the water's going.”
Meanwhile in Innisfail, Spiller said his town has implemented several measures to cut down infiltration, which would result in lower monthly utility bills for taxpayers. He said over the past two years the town has introduced a house visitation program to check water lines. As well, the town relined manholes last year as well as 11 kilometres of underground lines to stop infiltration.
“Now that we are on a regional line and paying by the cubic metre we don't want any of that extra water coming in because it drives the cost up for the consumers,” said Spiller. “If we can cut five, six, seven per cent off the infiltration off every year, over 10 years you have cut 50 per cent of the infiltration off. It takes time.”
With files from Johnnie Bachusky
Doug Wagstaff
"It's kind of like playing a great big game of – there used to be an app you had on your phone, I think it was called 'pipes.' It's just like playing a real-life game of that – trying to find out where the water's going."
