i . WATERUD um 'Wednelhy. May Mb, 2007 'M-meu-mmmmnm twirutm '" Gil-H W - gunm- N-In may? maul-gm 'wrt-una-ot.?.?)", mam-1 M t--rs-er-sm-ersNmahor'be he." " MN, "r-rc-ues an: " - mam la. WWENMWImmMWu-mmnme "he mmtwt*raes-t-ea'r.t-a -ratter.rtoC"aremerMrra0tsumiM0rr' in 03106me mwnn w - n I wanna: mom“ or Nail. M â€wows ' mswmrvmu n Kainliellmltrrtto,tmee www.poolheaven.ca Oh? Source. Every pool. Meters will be checked regularly to ensure accuracy, says regional official Whomâ€! bracket. The agency repaired the meter's housing and the meter was fully recalibrated on April 19. With the change, the region also did a historical analysis of the waste-water flow which sug- gested that the Waterloo num- bers were overestimated by 40 per cent from October 2006 to hprfVoo1 What that means is that local water users will immediately see savings in the proposed mid-year waste-water rate, which city council reviewed Monday night. Instead of a waste-water rate of $1.26 per cubic metre, it was changed to a rate of $1.01 per cubic metre for a savings of 25 cents. "This is very good news," said Garibaldi. "Now we're not out trying to tind the source of this waste water. "There m the potential that this was going to be very diffi- cult to rand. It was not some- thing we were looking forward to because it seemed to be elude ing us." Hometown whmiiNmiiihNttaE Hometown News for an Awesome It also saved some potential- ly expensive repair and excava- tion work to solve the problem. The city had only undergone a visual inspection up to that point, and faced a much more intrusive program to find the problem. "it was much better to have found that the problem was a malfunction than it was to find it was a technical problem," said Garibaldi. "Had it been a real technical problem no one knows how much it would have cost to tix" The region has since correct- ed the problem and is initiating a program to make sure the mistake doesn't happen again, said Nancy Kadousek. the region's director of water servic- es. "lt was a type of failure that was difficult to determine," she Both flow meters will be [calibrated in May to confirm their proper perfttrmancr. -." In'adaizibn, the region will add another thrw meter at the Waterloo waste-water treatment "Now we're not out trying to Jind the source of this waste water. " City Wamloo facility to ensure the perform- ance and accuracy of the exist- ing meters. "We knew the flows had increased and we were really working in a co-ordinated effort with the city, with ourselves and with the operator to try and determine the problem and mitigate it," said Kadousek. That credit could cost the region upwards of $1 million as it reimburses the lower munici- pality, but ism going to signifi- cantly affect the regional budg- et. The region is also in negotia- tions with the city to come up with a credit for the almost half year of erroneous readings While that's good news for Waterloo water users, they will still face an increase in their mid-year and waste-water rate adjustments due to lower water sales. an increase in regional wholesale water rates and high- er budgeted waste-water flows beyond the earlier miscalcula- Pauling a Mal vote, the pro- posed changes will add $48.63 to the average water bill. That means the average water bill in Waterloo will go from $487 to $535.35 this year. That's still significantly lower than the bills that Kitchener and Cambridge water users will face this year. The annual water bill for Kitchener users will be $587.41 this year, while Cambridge users willpay $552.16.