Now that Kamloops City council has decided to go ahead with installing water meters in every house in town, people want to know the financial costs residents face.

Utilities director David Duckworth said Wednesday of the 250 or so people who voluntarily had meters installed, most are saving between $30 and $100 a year on their water bills.

The costs will vary depending on a lot size. For every 1,000 square metres of property, the City charges a flat rate of $122.

So someone with a lot of 3,300 square metres now pays three times that $122, or $366.

But on top of that, everyone pays a fixed capital rate of $256.40 and fixed consumption rate of $198.80. So the person in this example pays $821.20 a year for water.

Someone with the smallest lot size of 1,000 square metres or less pays $577.20 a year.

When meters are installed, the same resident will pay $256.40 for capital and a fixed consumption rate of $144.59. For that $400.99, that individual gets 45,000 litres for three months in winter, 45,000 litres in fall, 90,000 litres in spring and 90,000 litres in summer.

There is no charge for having a large lot. But above and beyond those three-month allocations, that person will be charged 65 cents per 1,000 litres of water used. If the use goes really high, that rate will climb to $1.

If homeowners use less than their three-month allotment, such as 80,000 litres in spring, they can’t carry over the remaining 10,000 litres into summer.

Duckworth said a proposal by Coun. Denis Walsh to avoid meters by going to a three-day watering schedule wouldn’t work. First, it would be difficult to enforce. The even/odd system currently in use is easy to follow and easy for bylaws to enforce.

But more than that, it wouldn’t achieve the water conservation needed to stave off pending infrastructure works, he said. His staff have looked into the issue at length and have found no municipality using that system.

“If it was that easy, every single water utility would be doing that.”

Walsh’s proposal calls for 30 per cent of households to water on Day 1, 30 per cent on Day 2 and 40 per cent on Day 3. On the days where the 40 per cent can water, it’s certain that after three days almost all of them will put on their sprinklers, he said.

That will cause a huge drain on the water system.

Duckworth noted that with the odd/even system, people don’t always water every second day.

“But if you make it go to three days, everyone will water,” he said.

“When you keep restricting people, but they can use as much as they want during that time period, they’ll use more on that day then they do on the odd/even day.”

The City has maxed out its other options, including education, watering restrictions and fines, he said. Meters are the only option left.

“A complete ban would solve all our problems. But I don’t want Kamloops to go brown. I don’t want people not to have gardens.”

The reason for starting the metering program in the southeast and downtown areas is that’s where infrastructure works are slated to be done first, he said. Water meters will prevent or defer those projects.

The same rationale applies to the southwest part of the city, which is second in line for meters. And the North Shore is third because infrastructure projects there are further off.

“There’s lots of little steps left. It’s about making this a fair system for everybody.”