# Mandatory Water Meters coming soon!



## hlee72ca (Jun 29, 2010)

In December 2011, City Council will consider whether to make water meters mandatory for all new single family homes and duplexes in Vancouver. Just read it from city of Vancouver website. In Richmond and Surrey it is on voluntary basis and they say that 50% are metered. Of course I am referring to residential only, as all commerical are already metered. I for one welcome the new regulations, I will conserve water by collecting rainwater in 50 gallon plastic drums, for water changes, watering the garden, forget about watering the lawn in summer etc. I can see in the near future that water will be BC's biggest export. The US will be building pipelines to tap our water and China will have water barges instead of oil barges. Consider that most water in China is undrinkable from the tap and billions of people are drinking bottled water. Where does the water come from, for the bottled water? Can RO units filter out that much pollutants. With global warming, melting icecaps, receding lakes, ie. Africa. Forget about the oil wars, in the future it will be water wars. Many of the rich and powerful are buying up the water rights around the world.


----------



## gklaw (May 31, 2010)

Hope this is not another spam :lol: JK.

So rain water for WC. Like to hear more about that idea.


----------



## hlee72ca (Jun 29, 2010)

They are voting on the issue in Dec 2011, do you think Vancouver city council will pass up an opportunity to grab more tax dollars? New bike lanes cost millions of $$$, lol. Do you think the other municipalities will not join in? Count on it, in Gregor we trust(not). Just get those big 50 gallon blue, food safe, barrels, place them in your back yard to collect the rainwater. You can get one of those little giant pumps attached to a garden hose to bring the water inside. The only thing is temperature control, I have a 60 gallon plexiglass water holding tank with a heater and powerhead to add the water to the tank.


----------



## gklaw (May 31, 2010)

This has been in discussion for over 10 years now. The big proponent was then the newly privatized Terrasen gas who has the infrastructure to meter and collect. So they have been lobbying municipalities to let them install meters for the municipalities and to collect for them - and of course, taking their cut.

It is inevitable, it is just a matter of when they bite the bullet and make it a financially profitable and palatable proposition.


----------



## hlee72ca (Jun 29, 2010)

BC hydro is putting in the smart meters and I fail to see how its really going to save us money, infact I think its going to cost us $$$$$$. Water meters are read using the latest Automatic Meter Reading (AMR) technology. This technology allows meters to be read via radio by a vehicle mounted interrogation unit during each billing cycle. (this was taken from city of Vancouver site). "mounted interrogation unit" Are we terrorists? do we need to get interrogated? I will honestly tell you the reading from my water meter, there is no need to interrogate me!


----------



## Gregzz4 (Jun 25, 2010)

hlee72ca said:


> Count on it, in Gregor we trust(not).


Don't get me started on that lame-ass...
He is totally useless.
Where was he when the Stanley Cup riots started?


----------



## hlee72ca (Jun 29, 2010)

Hey why are you complaining, he's not your mayor, your mayor has the balls to vote against raising property taxes to fund the evergreen line. Every other mayor voted to increase property taxes this one time for the evergreen line.(yeah right) Wait til they realize the expo line is 25 yrs old and needs a major infusion of tax dollars to keep it running, how many municipalities will raise their property taxes to help rebuild vancouver's Expo line? But I digress.


----------



## Gregzz4 (Jun 25, 2010)

We'll have to see what happens with the new Vancouver units.
The City of Burnaby is only just now implementing the Smart Meters for Electricity.
Next we'll have water metering.
1984... it's only 30 years behind the novel, but Orwell had it pegged.
Any forward-thinking person can see the government will eventually absorb everything.
God forbid _they_ find out about us fish-keepers and our voluminous water changes.

I am INSANE, come lock me up 

OK, I just put that there so the government spooks would _'leaf me alone'_[/I]
Uh oh, they found me...nice knowin' yas


----------



## Gregzz4 (Jun 25, 2010)

hlee72ca said:


> Hey why are you complaining, he's not your mayor, your mayor has the balls to vote against raising property taxes to fund the evergreen line. Every other mayor voted to increase property taxes this one time for the evergreen line.(yeah right) Wait til they realize the expo line is 25 yrs old and needs a major infusion of tax dollars to keep it running, how many municipalities will raise their property taxes to help rebuild vancouver's Expo line? But I digress.


I compain because our business is in Vancouver and Gregor has done nothing with our tax dollars.
And ya, our Burnaby Mayor is one of the best in a long line of money-pinching dudes who has kept our city of Bby almost even.
Not much I can add to that.


----------



## Gregzz4 (Jun 25, 2010)

BTW, we are moving away from the original posters topic...


----------



## hlee72ca (Jun 29, 2010)

ok I stand corrected, you have every right to gripe about our bike riding mayor. I wonder if he rides to work when it rains? What gets me is, how did he win the election? How could he dupe so many people? I was shocked that he was re-elected. Yes, I am getting off track.............


----------



## Gregzz4 (Jun 25, 2010)

hlee72ca said:


> you have every right to gripe about our bike riding mayor
> 
> 
> hlee72ca said:
> ...


----------



## Gregzz4 (Jun 25, 2010)

nice to see I have a grasp on inserting quotes


----------



## 123mars (Jul 7, 2010)

Here is the thing about water meters. I live in West Vancouver which has had water meters to ever house for about 5 years.

The base rate is so high, perhaps 80% of the bill, that there is no incentive to conserve water! Another way of putting it is the marginal cost of water is too low to make a difference. Yes, the amount we are billed went up with the water meters, but that is due to the installation cost of the water meters being added to the property taxes over a 10 year period. 

In other words, the conservation value of water meters is close to zero.


----------



## Algae Beater (Apr 21, 2010)

the biggest issue here is why bother? Vancouver has heaps of water... HEAPS 

we run low for maybe 1 month of the whole year. does it make sense to spend millions on installing these just for one month of the year?


----------



## onefishtwofish (Apr 21, 2010)

i agree about bc water exporting being big. i seem to recall a huge amount of water going to california years back....... we never did get paid for it if i recall. i only hope our government doesn't privatize that as well.


----------



## cdsgo1974 (Sep 25, 2011)

hlee72ca said:


> They are voting on the issue in Dec 2011, do you think Vancouver city council will pass up an opportunity to grab more tax dollars? New bike lanes cost millions of $$$, lol. Do you think the other municipalities will not join in? Count on it, in Gregor we trust(not). Just get those big 50 gallon blue, food safe, barrels, place them in your back yard to collect the rainwater. You can get one of those little giant pumps attached to a garden hose to bring the water inside. The only thing is temperature control, I have a 60 gallon plexiglass water holding tank with a heater and powerhead to add the water to the tank.


Is using rainwater for water changes recommended? Are people actually doing this? If so, do you still need to apply water conditioner? Sorry for the stupid questions... I think it's a really good idea if it will not have ill effect on plants and fish or any other livestock.


----------



## gklaw (May 31, 2010)

Algae Beater said:


> the biggest issue here is why bother? Vancouver has heaps of water... HEAPS


Remember we do not take our water from what we see falling from the sky and flowing in the streams and sometimes into our basements.

There are a lot of costs for infrastructures to have the water treated and delivered to our faucets. Remember the Seymour Filtration Tunnels fiasco - that was part of a much bigger project where our tax dollars went to make sure we get lots of good and clean water. And then there are ongoing replacement of deteriorating water mains and subsequent infiltration/contamination, on and on.....

All government / municipalities look in the long term infrastructure costs (Evergeen Line, PortMann, etc). The question is where does the money come from and the answer is a user paid system and hence tolls on bridges.

The problem with water is something we are all used to and believe we have lots so why should we pay for it. The other factor is the return in terms of additional charges does not justify the cost of metering hence we end up paying for the cost for metering. BTW, because it is a essential commodities, there has been great resistance to allow private companies like Terasen to come in to take over through the P3 process.

In a smaller scale, we also make similar decisions. Does savings in energy and bulb replacement justify the expense on LED fixtures? Currently, I think the answer is no. But there are few that argue that our concern for long terms impact to the environment justify the extra costs. There is also the cool factor that also comes to play in the political arena.

You can push the analogies to a lot of larger issues - I think albeit no precise.


----------

