Rocky View County council asked staff for a full report on the inception and arrangement of a wastewater agreement that has taxpayers covering the costs to subsidize services in another county.
After an in-camera meeting Jan. 8, council asked staff to prepare a detailed report explaining the agreement first created between council and the Lakes of Muirfield developers in 2007.
The report is expected to be inclusive of all information starting with how the agreement to service the residential development, located in Wheatland County, began.
Reeve Rolly Ashdown said he couldn’t comment on the closed-door discussion but said it was prompted from questions brought forward from the public.
“Basically, some people are under the impression that a deal was made that wasn’t appropriate,” said Ashdown.
He said council will wait for the details of the report before making any further decisions. He anticipates more details will be brought forward during the next council meeting Jan. 22.
During an infrastructure and operations committee meeting Dec. 17, staff reported to council that it costs the County on average $235,000 more a year to service the Lakes of Muirfield than it receives in user fees charged. The deficit is covered through Rocky View general tax dollars, despite the development being in an another county.
The high cost is due to the fact that wastewater is trucked from the Dalroy transfer station to the Chestermere Lift Station.
At the infrastructure and operations committee meeting, Stuart Jewison, operations manager for the County, explained that the developers approached the County in 2007 because they didn’t have a wastewater solution and asked the County for help. During this period, the East Rocky View line was being built and the council at the time approved entering into a contract with the developers.
In a previous interview, Jewison explained that a Dalroy transfer station can be converted to a lift station with a main line connecting from the Dalroy Lift Station to the Langdon Wastewater Treatment Plant, which would eliminate the trucking component. However, the County hasn’t received enough funding through levies to pay for that yet.
Staff alerted council during the December meeting that rates will have to increase for users in Muirfield in order to recover costs.
The suggested increase presented last month during the committee meeting was $30 per month plus $14.98 per cubic meter up from the current rate of $30 per month plus $2.438 a cubic metre.
The committee members recommended council direct staff to send a letter of notification to the Lakes of Muirfield residential and golf course developments regarding a substantial increase in the service fees for wastewater services. That recommendation will come to council for discussion Jan. 22. Ashdown expects to hear about the report at that time as well.
