The County of Grande Prairie will be putting $200,000 towards the subsidizing of wastewater rates faced by residents in Clairmont. For the third year, members of council approved of the subsidizing effort, which will be paid directly out of the dividends the County receives from Aquatera.
Reeve Leanne Beaupre says members of council are happy to try to help out with costs until the cost of the infrastructure can be paid down a little more. At that point, rates should come down naturally.
“Aquatera sets the rates and then each municipality [can] subsidize or add additional rate infrastructure to it,” she explains.
Beaupre adds each water or sewer line in the County can have a unique delivery system, unlike bigger municipalities, which are more straight-forward.
“In Grande Prairie, you buy a lot, turn it on and you get a water bill,” she explains. “Some of them have only water, some have only sewage lines, some have trickle systems, and some have high-pressure systems. We juggle quite a number of water and wastewater systems out there.”
The higher water and sewer rates are due to the installation of a 2017 infrastructure project that connects the Clairmont Lagoon to the Grande Prairie sewer system so it can be treated at the Aquatera treatment plant.