Dear Editor:
I wish to address the letter you published in the Whitewater News called “No Place For Special Interests” on May 11, 2017 written by Howard Winters. The story written by Connie Tabbert “Increases for Most Water and all Whitewater Users” published May 4, 2017, served as the basis for his letter.
Regretfully, my main concerns re: water usage and billing was not reported in it’ entirety in the article so Mr. Winters’ letter does not accurately reflect the concerns I presented to Council. Mr. Winters chose the title “No Place For Special Interests” which sets the reader up nicely for a point of view/opinion based on incomplete information.
For clarification purposes, I will attempt to give a clearer understanding of my concerns regarding my water bills.
Since several buildings in town are already water metered, this precedent has already been established. As of yet, there is no bylaw or code that I am aware of, on having a water meter and there are no reasonable grounds to conclude I am restricted from having a water meter either.
Having installed a meter on April 25 of this year at my own expense, I have been able to gauge my water usage and compare it to my bill and the math simply does not add up. The water meter was professionally installed by a professional company who professionally installs water meters. I can assure Council that if they have a trained water meter reading specialist, who reads the existing meters in Cobden, I will happily cover the expenses of bringing that person in to read my water meter.
I have one water line entering 5 Crawford Street. I pay residential rates of $173.32 for the living quarters upstairs and 259.99 (medium commercial rates) for the funeral home downstairs, every three months for a total of $433.31. Monthly, this is $144.43 with a yearly bill of $1,733.24. I also have one sewer line exiting my building of which I am paying two different rates for a total of $478.93 every three months or $1,915.72 yearly. Together water and sewage bills total $3,648.96 per year.
Whitewater Region water rates for 2017 show a billing rate of $5.06 per 1000 imperial gallons of water. Based on these charges, I would have to use 85,000 imperial gallons of water every three months or 28,333 imperial gallons of water every month or roughly 940 gallons of water every day.
Let’s put that into perspective. A fully loaded 747 Jet, leaving Vancouver bound for Tokyo, will burn roughly 30,000 gallons of fuel for the duration of that 10 -hour flight which is the volume of water I would need to use in a month, or I would have to use the equivalent of 85 Whitewater Region fire truck tankers carrying 1000 gallons of water in a three month period.
The Whitewater Region Fire department responded to three major structure fires from January to March, which included 1. a house fire, 2. a barn fire and 3. a machine shop fire. The amount of water used to saturate, contain and extinguish all three structures together, totalled approximately 37,000 gallons of water, which mathematically, is 48,000 gallons of water LESS than the volume of water I am paying for in the same three month period.
I agree with Mayor Hal Johnson who said, “Water has to be paid for by the people who use it.” But, simply put, I am NOT using that volume of water. I am not using that volume of water in the same way Mr. Winters and most residents of Whitewater region are not using it.
There is no mystery or devious attempt to devise a strategy to have Whitewater residents pay my water bills. Neither my residence nor business model seek to impose our water use as an expense on the community, but at the same time, I do not wish to pay for a volume of water that is eight-and one half times greater than the volume of water I am using.
The only mystery here is, how one might interpret an honest request for fair and reasonable billing as a “Special Interest”, but then again, if Mr. Winters had the business acumen he seems to think he does, he would have posted his letter in The Cobden Sun and not the Whitewater News.
Sincerely,
Wayne Heubner, Cobden
