INNISFAIL - Homeowners who have cross connection issues with wastewater and storm lines will now be eligible for up to $3,500 in financial assistance from the town.
The new initiative, believed to be the first of its kind by any Alberta municipality, follows three years of inspections of 645 local houses. The inspection process falls under the town's Inflow and Infiltration Strategy to reduce the amount of water needlessly going out of homes and into the South Red Deer Waste Water Line and ending up in the city of Red Deer for treatment.
Identifying cross connections is a big part of the home inspections, and is a problem potentially costly for both homeowners and the town. They typically occur with aging sanitary and storm systems, where sewer and storm lines cross before reaching main lines outside their homes, causing unnecessary water seepage.
"We have been trying to reduce our flows over the last few years. It saves the town money and it actually saves the homeowner money as well," said Frank Colosimo, the town's director of operational services.
Colosimo said in a report to council that while the town's Utility Bylaw says landowners are responsible for ensuring their properties are connected correctly to municipal services, the Operational Services Standing Committee decided on Jan. 24 that the town should provide citizens with financial assistance of up to $3,500 to fix cross connections, the most costly of inflow and infiltration issues. Council approved the committee recommendation and set a $15,000 financial assistance budget for 2017, with funding applying only to new repairs.
He said the financial assistance move was also brought forward because inspectors were running into some homeowners who would not allow inspections, even though it's compulsory under the Utility Bylaw. Colosimo said out of the total 645 inspected homes seven were found to have cross connection issues, with four being fixed and three remaining outstanding due to homeowners not allowing inspections.
"These cross connection repairs are a little bit more costly and what we are finding now is that if some people are thinking they might have an issue with cross connections they are not letting us in to inspect their houses," said Colosimo. "We want to help people out. We don't want people to avoid doing the right thing by having a costly repair bill.
"The whole intent of this program is to provide assistance that they may need to undertake a big repair and in turn hopefully (the town) will get a lot more compliance, people letting us in, taking a look at their lines and see how well it is going," he added.
Mayor Brian Spiller said he supported the financial assistance plan because the town has to do its "due diligence" on the issue and convince residents that addressing cross connections as a priority is simply the right thing to do for citizens and the overall health of the town.
"We can't allow our citizens to be cross connected and running raw sewage sort of speak down into our storm lines which is going directly (to Red Deer) without being treated. We are trying to help our citizens," said Spiller. "A lot of these people, the third, fourth of fifth owner of a house, never knew they had a problem and it would be too hard for us to track back the original builder so we are just trying to help them out to make sure it is all done properly."
Colosimo said the trio of homeowners who have turned back inspectors on cross connection issues will soon be approached by the town with information on the financial assistance program, which will become standard practice for all future home inspections.
Frank Colosimo, the town's director of operational services
"These cross connection repairs are a little bit more costly and what we are finding now is that if some people are thinking they might have an issue with cross connections they are not letting us in to inspect their houses."
