Published: Thursday, October 20, 2011
John Eyre, Oceanside Star
Published: Thursday, October 20, 2011

THE EDITOR:

With reference to 'Urine the Pool' (Oct. 13).

It is good to see this program working and the tremendous savings on water achieved in Parksville. Thanks to Bob Harary for the calculation of 23,000 cubic meters of water saved per year through these replacement toilets. His figures also show that in Parksville the average number of people per home is 2.14 and the average savings per rebate (toilet) is 43.07 cubic metres.

I do wonder how many people who took the trouble to replace their toilets will actually save any money on their water use. With a minimum Base Rate fee of $221 and 180 cubic metres of water included in this fee, that sets a limit to potential savings a home can make. If Parksville is like Qualicum, about 25% of homes fall within this minimum range and these people are subsidizing the use of water by the higher-volume users.

If you really want a fair system, remove or reduce the Base Rate to a nominal figure. For more details on water rates across BC and Canada, go to http: //WaterWatchBC.net.

John Eyre, Qualicum Beach


http://www2.canada.com/oceansidestar/news/opinion/story.html?id=a8c8582a-530b-4ab4-b631-c6f268fb2253


Urine the pool
Oceanside Star
Published: Thursday, October 13, 2011
At the Oct. 3 Parksville council meeting, Coun. Marc Lefebvre asked staff to estimate the quantity of water saved as a result of the 534 low-flush toilet rebates issued between 2008 and Sept. 15, 2011.

Bob Harary, Director of Engineering & Operations, came up with the following estimate of how much water the 534 installations will save in 2012:

(534 rebates) x (7 litres water saved/flush) x (6 flushes /day for new toilets) x (1.32673 industry standard factor for double flushes) x (365 days/year) x (11,726 persons in Parksville - latest figures divided by 5,469 dwelling units) = 23.3 million litres saved in 2012 (give or take).

23.3 million litres equals 23,300 cubic metres. This is about enough water to fill 9-10 Olympic swimming pools.

http://www2.canada.com/oceansidestar/news/story.html?id=e957ff94-4890-40c9-af48-fba4964c4866