Drumheller Town Council is considering relaxing the geographical restrictions in a contract that binds Rocky View County from using water delivered through Aqua 7 to the whole county.
At the February 3 Committee of the Whole meeting, the councillors had some of the concerns addressed by Administration.
Mayor Terry Yemen said this is a good opportunity for the Town.
“They are not asking for any more than they are already under contract for,” said Yemen. “This gives them an opportunity to start using what they already have a contract to use.”
There are some in the community who sill have some concerns about the changes.
Former Mayor Bryce Nimmo was serving when there was controversy about the Drumheller Water Treatment Plant supplying water to development in Balzac. At that time, Rocky View was asking for not only geographical restrictions to be lifted, but also to increase supply. Council turned them down.
Nimmo said Council shouldn’t be in a rush to grant the amendments to its contract. Because Rocky View is looking to secure its supply for use in the future, there is no immediate benefit to Drumheller.
He recalls the geographical restrictions were carefully considered to allow Drumheller to grow. He said shipping water to the East Balzac Treatment Plant would in fact be detrimental to Drumheller’s retail sector. It would allow Rocky View to attract more development, right on Drumheller’s doorstep.
“The original idea of the agreement was to have the strength of water for this area to attract people to live and shop here, and develop the area,” said Nimmo.
Yemen said the changes could be beneficial to residents of Drumheller.
“If we could sell more water, we could maintain, or even, god forbid, make the prices a little bit cheaper for the people of Drumheller,” said Yemen. There may be a discount of 10 cents per litre, or maybe not, but purifying water and processing wastewater isn’t getting any cheaper, so we have an opportunity here, if we can sell more water, we can help to defer some of our costs.”
John Sparling served on council during the time the Balzac development was being explored and eventually turned down by Drumheller Town Council. He sees no difference in the proposition then as the one now.
“When the council of that day reviewed those matters, we took the position that the original agreement was the water would be available for our immediate trading area. A geographical area was set out and there was full agreement from the members of the Kneehill Water Service Commission as to what that would be,” said Sparling.
He said there should be consideration of the preserving water supplies.
“There have been talks and concerns about the changing climate, issues of less snow fall in the Rockies and the potential of water supplies being tight. If we make a commitment at this time to supply water outside our immediate trading area, we may be creating problems down the road for those who follow us,” said Sparling.
Administration’s report to council said of water is used in the long term, there may be negligible decrease in costs due to economies of scale. Sparling feels there are not enough benefits too warrant making the changes.
“If there was a slight advantage on the basis of rates, it wouldn’t be significant enough to warrant this. There is also potential issues of staffing. Will we need more staff? How many more will we need? The answer is there is not enough of an upside to take the next step,” said Sparling.
Drumheller is poised for growth with the potential of the expansion of the Drumheller Institution as well as the possibility offered the Hope Health Venture of introducing a post-secondary Institution. Nimmo would like to see those employed by such initiatives to live in the area and shop locally.
