Missing water confounds RM Corman Park officials

The Rural Municipality of Corman Park has a mystery on its hands.

It’s trying to figure out why its water billings in the hamlet of Riverside Estates are so much lower than the water supplied.

In 2016, close to four million litres was unaccounted for — 17 per cent of its total distribution, said RM administrator Adam Tittemore.

A pressure test of the system found no leak, as did hydrosonic testing by SaskWater.

Since 2014, the RM has been supplying potable water to residents of Riverside Estates, drawing it into a pumphouse and reservoir from the Dundurn Rural Water Utility, and piping it to each house through distribution lines. There is a meter on the line going into the pumphouse, and a meter within each house.

Before then, homeowners drew raw water from the river.

Tittemore says there may be leaks that have not been found yet or unintentional cross connections between the old and new water systems — for instance, in trying to pipe raw water into inground sprinklers.

A third possibility being investigated is theft through diversion around a meter.

Last fall, the RM launched an investigation, contracting an inspection of all 70 homes in the hamlet. It did not sit well with every homeowner.

Al Pike accused the RM of conducting the inspections under false pretences, because it did not explicitly state it was looking for possible theft.

The letter the RM sent to residents said the meter inspections were “a followup on the installation performance of the Sensus Remote Water Meter, back flow protection, isolation between water systems and the flow within each residential home that was included in the Dundurn Rural Water Utility Project.”

Homeowners were told the inspections are mandatory and their water may be cut off if they do not co-operate.

Pike only learned the inspector was checking for a meter diversion in his house during the course of the inspection.

He sent an angry email to Tittemore and Reeve Judy Harwood, calling the RM’s approach “unacceptable conduct.”

However, Tittemore rejects the allegation of false pretences, saying the letter covered all possibilities the RM is looking into “and we didn’t want to make any outright allegations that there was theft occurring.”

He said he attended a community meeting, where he acknowledged the need to ensure communication is as clear as possible and also explained the importance of what the RM is doing.

So far, two residents have refused the inspection and another 14 residents could not be reached last fall when the letter was circulated.

Tittemore said of the 54 homes inspected, six were found with issues: Three had cross connections, one had a system leak and four lines were run around the meter.

In the spring, the RM will try to determine if the four meter diversions are actually dead-end stubs from irrigation systems that have been replaced.

If water coming out of an irrigation system contains chlorine and other treatments that would not be coming from a well or raw water source “then we would feel strongly that it’s coming from our system,” Tittemore said.

The challenge then will be to determine the value of what has been lost and how to settle the matter, he said.

“Our biggest consideration in this case is just wanting to make sure that we rectify the situation and make sure that we are accounting for all the water that we have,” he explained, saying he hopes to clear up the entire problem this year.

In all, the RM of Corman Park operates five different water systems, but Riverside Estates is the only one with a billing discrepancy.

Meanwhile, the shortfall is costing the RM and its water customers in Riverside Estates. The RM figures it has lost around $15,000 in 2016, and about the same in 2017.

In December, the RM council passed a rate increase for Riverside Estates of 5.69 per cent, which Tittemore says is disproportionate to the other systems “in order to make up for the losses.”