Bowden has no plans to hike sewer costs

BOWDEN - The good news for Bowden ratepayers is their sewer and water rates aren't expected to increase in 2017. That's council's plan as it hammers out its budget.

The bad news is town officials aren't sure how long they'll be able to prevent an increase, because their costs are being squeezed.

The town's sewage is treated in Red Deer as part of the South Red Deer Regional Wastewater Commission (SRDRWC).

Mayor Robb Stuart and chief administrative officer James Mason say in the new year, charges for those services are going to rise, possibly as early as Jan. 1. But so far, the town has no plans to pass that hike on to residents.

"Our rate is not going up to the customer. So effectively, we have to eat the increase – the town does -- because we didn't feel that we could lay that extra burden on the ratepayer," Mason says.

"What that'll do when our cost goes up, it'll reduce what we have to work with, because we didn't pass it on this year. Now next year, we may have to, I don't know," he adds.

By absorbing that increase in costs and not passing it on to taxpayers, the town is cutting its own margins very thin. So it's looking for ways to cut the volume that is sent for treatment.

"If we can cut back by even 10 or 20 per cent on what we're producing in the outflow, that's a big dollar number," Mason says.

He says the town is concerned that it seems to be sending a huge volume of fluid to Red Deer. Town officials are wondering if there's a lot of water going into the sanitary sewers from storm sewers, sump pumps or just groundwater runoff.

One idea is to send cameras into the sewers to see if that's the case.

The town may also reline the sewers with a product that Mason describes as a kind of "fibre sock."

"It's basically a flat hose," he says. "It's (made) out of fibre. And they pull it through the lines and then they inflate it and they put a resin in it, much like you would for a fibreglass resin, and they saturate this stuff and then they heat it. This actually turns into an internal pipe.

"It essentially gives you a brand new pipe and you use the old pipe for the casing. It's a hell of a deal but it's bloody expensive. But you're saving the excavation (costs). It's a really good system because you don't disturb the ground. You put it in from manhole to manhole."

Encouraging residents to conserve water is another idea.

Mason is a fan of low-flush toilets, for example.

He says so far, the town hasn't come up with a solid number on how much they want to spend to try to cut sewer costs, but town officials are working on it.