Just as this website asked several months ago, Where was the City going to find 20 million dollars for Sewer Upgrades? Now we know.

From The Portage Daily Graphic

Residents in Portage la Prairie will have to dole out a little more cash next year when they get their monthly water and sewer bill.

At its Monday night meeting, city council approved a six per cent rate increase for low- to mid-volume customers, and an eight per cent hike for high-volume commercial users, starting Jan. 1, 2009.

The increases to both the water and sewer rates will be used to maintain the services, while an additional five per cent increase applied to sewer rates will be put into a reserve to pay for the nutrient removal project.

“The Public Utilities Board awarded us these increases based on the need that we know is coming for nutrient management and removal,” explained Mayor Ken Brennan following the meeting. “We’re doing studies right now, and we’re building up our utility reserves to cover the costs that we know we’re going to have in regards to these nutrient management systems and studies that we are putting in place.”

The nutrient removal program, required by the province, is not optional for the city. It aims at reducing nutrients such as phosphorus, nitrogen, fertilizers, cleaning chemicals and sewage in city water before it enters waterways that flow into Lake Winnipeg. Studies have shown an imbalance of nutrients leads to toxic algae blooms, which kill fish, wildlife and cattle.

The additional five per cent increase in sewer rates will mean additional charges of $16 per year in 2009 for a family consuming 15,000 gallons per quarter; an extra $840 for a mid-sized industry consuming 1,000,000 gallons per quarter and an additional $51,800 for a large industry.

Coun. Dave Quinn, co-chairman of the city’s waterworks committee, said the additional $328,120 that the five per cent increase will bring in to the nutrient removal reserve is important because the project is not expected to be cheap.