Liquid gold

County seeking better water deal from Belleville

For regular readers of The Times, it comes as no surprise that the County’s waterworks is a broken model. One piece of the puzzle is a bad deal negotiated over 20 years ago, to supply the residents of Fenwood Gardens and Rossmore with drinking water from the City of Belleville. At last week’s council meeting, a report was presented, which will see the CAO try to negotiate a revised water agreement to the City of Belleville for consideration, with a new rate structure.

Currently Belleville sells water to its residents at a cost of $1.86 per cubic metre and bulk water for $2.42 per cubic metre to anyone who shows up, whether they are from Toronto, Montreal or Florida. The County, however, pays its neighbours $4.21 per cubic metre for the same water. The County is charged a 74 per cent premium for Belleville bulk water—a premium it charges no one else. Last year, the bill was $430,986 for Belleville water, or about $183,000 more than any other bulk customer who drew as much water from the Belleville system. Since 2006, the County has paid the City of Belleville over $4.9 million in bulk water purchases for just 435 homes. However, water users in Rossmore and Fenwood Gardens don’t pay Belleville’s inflated rate. They pay $2.84 per cubic metre, just as other water users in the County do. The overcharge is shared by all waterworks users. Meanwhile down the road, the County buys water from Quinte West to serve Carrying Place and Consecon at a rate of $1.26 per cubic metre—much less than the rate charged by Belleville.

The original deal was struck between the Township of Ameliasburgh and the City of Belleville in the mid- ’80s to provide water to the new community of Fenwood Gardens. Belleville expanded its water plant to accommodate the extra demand. It received some provincial funding for the expansion, but funded the remainder themselves. The township and Belleville agreed it would charge Rossmore and Fenwood Gardens customers roughly 50 per cent more than its Belleville customers to recover this investment over time. The County owns and manages the entire water distribution from the outlet pipe at the foot of Sidney Street in Belleville including a 4-kilometre pipe under the Bay of Quinte throughout the communities of Rossmore and Fenwood Gardens. But the water bills came from the City of Belleville at that time. In 2006, the County renegotiated a new agreement with Belleville with the aim of gaining control of the billing and maintenance of these customers. Belleville officials, however, had no incentive to change the agreement. In return for control of the customers they would increase the bulk rate. Even though their workload became less.

In 2006, the County signed a new agreement with a term of 14 years, which expired in December of 2020. In December 2020, an extension until March 31, 2021 was signed and executed. County staff are seeking a substantial reduction in the bulk water rate to bring it more in line with other bulk water purchasers in Belleville. This would see a consumptive rate of $1.92 for the first 455 cubic metres and $1.43 per cubic metre for the next 22,275 cubic metres. A 10-year deal will also be proposed instead of a 14-year deal as in the past. Currently the County pays Belleville on average over $46,000 per month for water. The new rates would cut the cost to just over $16,500 per month.

According to a staff report, the City of Belleville says that this agreement has been in place on the grounds that County residents are not contributing to its tax base. The report also notes that the land parcels in the Rossmore and Fenwood service area that are connected to water service would have originally been residents of Belleville. It is presumed that those residents would have paid a connection fee, thus already having contributed to the cost of infrastructure for future growth, although this can’t be confirmed. It is also important to note that as a neighboring municipality, Prince Edward County residents make a substantial contribution to the local economy of Belleville.