Norfolk approves water distribution agreement
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Norfolk County council on Tuesday approved the financial principles of its water supply agreement with Haldimand County.
Councillors also voted to undertake a water rates update study and praised the work of county staff in moving the much-needed project forward.
“Planning horizons for municipal water systems takes years and I commend this council and our staff, especially Mariana (Balaban), for moving this forward and Haldimand for working with us so that one day we can all benefit from the economies of scale of one shared water plant,” Mayor Kristal Chopp said following Tuesday’s council meeting.
“This issue, the largest ever faced by Norfolk County, was identified almost 15 years ago but nothing was ever done about it until this council,” Chopp said. “Talk is cheap and action is expensive.
“But a safe and sustainable drinking water system is not something one gambles on.”
Balaban, of the county’s engineering environment and infrastructure services division, joined the county earlier this year and is the project director.
The agreement approved by councillors on Tuesday provides the guiding principles for the water supply agreement including ownership, payment, maintenance, connection rights and water meter testing. Numerous other potential issues are also covered including interruptions of supply, billing amounts, frequency of payments and insurance.
Coun. Chris Van Paassen (Ward 4) also praised the work of county staff.
“This project is probably the most important, expensive project that this county has ever undertaken,” Van Paassen said. “I appreciate the work staff has done and I have full confidence that when they get all of these agreements in place and pipes in the ground we are going to have a long-term solution to high quality, potable water for all of our urban residents.
“Our staff are doing the best they can and will get us the best deal possible.”
The decision Tuesday comes just over a month after councillors awarded a $2.84 million contract to Stantec Consulting Ltd. to provide the engineering services to design and construct the water supply system.
The county’s $180 million water distribution plan calls for Simcoe, Port Dover, Waterford, Delhi and Port Rowan to be connected to Haldimand County’s water treatment plant in Nanticoke by 100 kilometres of piping by 2031.
Plans call for the project to be done in four phases and to be funded through debentures and other borrowing.
In some areas of Norfolk including Port Dover and Simcoe moratoriums on new development are in place because of water supply concerns. The county has also put a hold on new development applications in Port Rowan.
The water distribution project will be funded through debentures and other borrowing.
Municipal water rates was a difficult topic for county councillors in 2019 when they were forced to approve a 16.8 per cent water bill increase that took effective in 2020.
The increase meant that a household on municipal water that paid $80 a month – based on consumption of 11 cubic metres per month – had to pay $93.41 a month for the same usage in 2020.
Councillors were told, at the time, that the increase was driven by much-needed upgrades to infrastructure across the county.
However, a report presented to councillors Tuesday said the new water distribution plan will have long term positive impacts on the county’s water rates.
“It is anticipated that Norfolk’s water rates will stabilize and/or decrease over the long term due to economics of scale of a larger customer base and decommissioning of the existing aged water infrastructure,” the report said.
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