Water meters proven tool for conservation

Flat rates for water use are often popular, but they are very poor public policy. Flat rates encourage waste. Flat rates discourage conservation of water and energy, and devalue their importance.

Flat rates make conscientious citizens pay for the bad habits of wasteful neighbours.

And flat rates are generally too low to pay for the full cost of the resources consumed.

So flat water rates are on their way out in Canada.

More than 10 years after the Walkerton tragedy, Canadians remain among the most wasteful water users in the world. Few even know how much water our households or businesses use.

Environment Canada exhorts consumers to keep a log of water use, and provides average volumes used for common activities: 18 litres per toilet flush, 100 litres for a shower, 225 litres for a washing machine load and around 400 litres to wash the car.

Unfortunately, this type of pious exhortation has almost no impact on behaviour, because our water is incredibly cheap — an average of 86 cents per thousand litres.

In contrast, an astounding volume of water can be saved through use of water meters. Fort St. John, introduced meters in 2006 and reported a decrease in usage of nearly 826.5 million cubic metres in 2010 as compared with 2006.

In 1994, Canadian households paying a flat rate for water used 450 litres per person per day. Those paying by volume used only 263 litres, more than 40 per cent less.

Those living in homes with water meters have an incentive to use water-saving devices like low-flow showerheads and toilets, and front-loading washing machines.

And perhaps they do not leave the water running when they are not using it.

In 1991, about half of Canadian households had water meters; this increased to 63 per cent by 2004, and is steadily rising.

In 2009, the C.D. Howe Institute estimated only 25 per cent of residential customers remain un-metered.

The City of Toronto is now rolling out a mandatory water-metering program. Under the new system, all customers will pay for the water they actually use.

The city will provide meters to those who were previously on a flat rate system and replace existing meters with new, automated ones.

The new meters will send their serial number and consumption information data regularly to collection units then to a central server.

The new system will help to keep better track of water consumption across the city, detect water loss more quickly and eliminate the need for staff to go to homes to obtain water meter readings.

It will also provide environmental benefits. Accurate data on base and peak use should help focus conservation and peak saving strategies.

Taken from a series of monthly columns by Dianne Saxe and Jackie Campbell. Saxe is considered one of the top 25 environmental law specialists in the world.