The following article talks about the quickly escalating cost of water in the Toronto area. Many of the same water infrastructure problems face us here in Kingston. All this makes you wonder why we are raiding our municipal reserve funds to build projects such as the LVEC...


Water bill hikes to continue for years

CBC News Mar 17 2006

Toronto homeowners who were shocked when their annual water bills jumped this month by an average of $33 had better get used to it, officials say. It's just the beginning.

Faced with the continuing deterioration of sewer and water pipes – pipes that, if placed end-to-end, would stretch from St. John's, Nfld. to Victoria, B.C. – and needed upgrades to waste- and water-treatment facilities, the city says homeowners will be looking at rate hikes in the nine-per-cent range for as long as eight years.

That would boost the average water bill to about $634 by 2014 from the current $370.

"That $634 would still be lower than a lot of cities in Canada," Councillor Adam Giambrone, vice-chairman of the city works committee, told CBC Online News. "We've been under funding [the water system] for the last generation, and now we are paying the price."

However, city officials say that price will be worth it.

"In the actual quality of water, there will likely be an improvement in areas where brown water complaints occur [due to existing cast-iron piping, some of which goes back 120 years]," Patrick Newland, director of water treatment and supply, told CBC Online News. "We also anticipate a lower break history."

Giambrone's own Ward 18 had a good look at that problem this winter when most of the intersection of Symington Avenue and Bloor Street West collapsed after a 20-year-old leak in the sewer line finally eroded the supporting structure under the street.

It took a week to fix.

As a rule of thumb, officials say, about two per cent of the city's 5,000 to 6,000 kilometres of water pipe, and one per cent of the 4,000 kms of waste pipe should be replaced each year, but that goal is not being met.

"We're behind. We're playing catch-up, and we will be to 2015," Giambrone said. "Our spending is ramping up so that around 2010, it will reach the $1-billion mark from about $350 million last year."

Some of the pipes are in good shape, and not all are being replaced. Many can have a lining inserted that then expands to cling to the inside of the pipe, a treatment that lasts "for years," said Newland, who hopes to be back up to the one- and two-per-cent replacement levels by the end of the decade.

"People took water for granted the last 50 years," Giambrone said. "And you can't do that."