Falmouth flower grower 'shocked' at proposed water-rate hikes

A move to consolidate three water utilities and standardize water rates in the Municipality of West Hants has a local flower business worried its water bill is about to skyrocket.

The municipality's numbers show Hantsport and Three Mile Plains/Wentworth customers would see a drop in their water rates under the new regime, but Falmouth customers would see increases of between 52 and 54 per cent.

"I was pretty shocked by the rates that I was looking at," said Kevin White, the president and CEO of Avon Valley Floral in Falmouth. "For us, that kind of an increase in the first year alone will mean about $10,000 in cost increase."

Avon Valley Floral grows potted plants for sale and also sells cut flowers to florists wholesale. The operation uses about 8.7-million litres of water each year. White said the company currently pays about $18,000 per year for water.

The company took a severe hit in the winter of 2015, when many of its greenhouses collapsed under the weight of ice and snow. The business has since been able to rebuild. The Falmouth branch employs 40 people full-time, and in the spring it needs an extra 30 people who are all hired locally.

West Hants is applying to the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board to amalgamate the water utilities for Falmouth, Hantsport, and Three Mile Plains/Wentworth.

Each of the three utilities has its own rules and charges different rates for water. The municipality said in regulatory filings that combining the three utilities would standardize the water rates and save an estimated $41,000 per year.

While rates would rise for Falmouth, West Hants has said it will offset the increased water costs by moving those customers from a flat-rate sewer charge to a consumption-based sewer charge, which the municipality described as a "fairer" option.

The municipality said Falmouth residential customers are currently charged a flat rate of $775 per year for sewer and $350 on average for water. According to a water-rate study in 2018, the municipality believes if water and sewer charges were combined, the average user in Falmouth would pay less — about $1,031 per year for both services.

Out of 792 water customers in Falmouth, 152 don't have municipal sewer service.

Members of the provincial utility and review board are pondering the municipality's application. The board, which regulates water rates but not sewer rates, is expected to make a ruling by July.

However, White does not believe the municipality's proposal will offset any costs for his business.

"We don't have a sewer savings that's going to occur here. We're just a residential customer from a sewer perspective, with a few employee washrooms that go out into the sewer," he said.

"Our water all goes as a raw material into the plants. So there is no sewer savings for us that's going to offset the huge increase in water consumption."

No one from the municipality was available for an interview this week, but in a previous conversation the CAO pointed to the municipality's sewer bylaw, which was updated in March.

The bylaw states that a property owner who uses more than 1,000 cubic metres of water per year but doesn't discharge it all into the sewer can get a rebate for the extra sewer charges. The owner must prove to the municipality's satisfaction the water isn't going into the public sewer.

White said this doesn't take away his concern about the price of water going up.

"That's not the point," he said. "The point is, we never have had sewer as a cost, so the fact that the sewer costs won't go up is nice but we're not going to have a huge sewer saving that will offset the increase in water costs."

In an email, West Hants Warden Abraham Zebian wrote that customers who have both water and sewer will see their bill drop, on average.

"Customers who have only water service will see an increase in the water rate if the UARB views it as fair and in the best interest of sustaining the water utility into the future," Zebian wrote, adding the review board is tasked with looking out for the public's best interest and will have the "ultimate say."