All-Zone All-Property Water Metering 2025/26

With changing climate potentially affecting supply (see below for details), and aging private and public water distribution infrastructure, the community needs to control its water demand.  In Lions Bay, the purpose of metering is to save water, not to save money (although it’ll save a bit of that too).  Meters enable early leak detection, promote water demand awareness and incentivise conservation.

Zone metering and pressure turndown installs have already started--the first zone will be online and reporting data by October 2025.  

Installation of property water meters is planned for March 2026--sooner if the site census, project planning and procurement goes faster.  The program requires completion by March 2027.

Water meters are installed in a utility box between the edge of the street and the private property boundary, in the boulevard.  In-person Town Halls will be held to inform Lions Bayers how, when and why metering is happening. Signage, letters and Village Updates will indicate when installations commence in a given neighbourhood.  Each connection will experience a service interruption of about three hours.

If valuable plants or landscaping features on public property in the road allowance are within two meters of the water connection, residents are encouraged to relocate them ahead of time to avoid potential damage during installation. The installation team will make an effort to restore built elements that are on public property.  

Meter excavations may occur off the property line to avoid disturbing slopes, but in all cases the existing curb stop located at the property line remains the official transition from public to private Infrastructure.  A new curbstop sleeve will be installed if necessary, so that if abnormal flow through the meter occurs in future, the curb stop can be closed to determine whether that flow is due to a leak on the public side.

The purpose of metering is to provide an overall view of water use in the entire community, for reasons given elsewhere in these FAQs.  Without all purposeful use being measured, we don't know how much unintentional use (a.k.a. leakage) there is.

Lions Bay is fortunate to have received a grant under a $50 mil. provincial water metering pilot program, which was instituted to inform anticipated mandatory metering in BC.  Lions Bay staff had been working on metering for some time, so our $3.94 mil. proposal is believed to be complete and realistically priced.  The grant is for 100 percent of the cost of the project.  

Short answer: Lions Bay gets universal property metering, as well as zone metering and the ability to control 14 mains valves, for nothing.

Currently, the municipality bills water to users at a flat rate, irrespective of how much water they use. Measuring usage through meters won't by itself change how the municipality charges for water, but it does provide the option to charge based on usage.  

Under a usage-based rate, properties using less water than average would pay less than average, and properties using more would pay more, especially if the rate increases when water is scarcer.  In Lions Bay, 94 percent of the cost of our $1.2 mil. annual water operating budget is fixed--it is independent of the volume produced.  Billing--whether flat or usage based or a combination--still needs to cover that budget.

So the average Lions Bay water bill won't change, because we still need to raise the water budget every year, although metering should reduce that budget somewhat, due to not having to constantly chase down leakage.

Substantial public consultation would take place on a any usage-based rate, but known benefits of metered billing include equitable charges, and an incentive to conservation.  

A usage-based rate would rate water use against a price schedule that considers volume threshholds (a base use allowance, and extra use amounts), season (lower charges for months when supply is not constrained).  In Lions Bay rates will be modelled as metering data starts coming in, to be sure the final charges provide sufficient revenue to cover the water operating budget.

Under a usage-based rate, users would all receive a quarterly bill.  In the case of multi-unit properties, the owner, usually a strata corporation, would decide internally how to allocate costs among units. Institutional and commercial accounts will be metered too.  Specific billing arrangements will be determined for each account, specifically:

• The School field and the School building
• The Marina proper, the separate marine service centre and the RS-1 dwelling on the multi-parcel marina property
• The Store/Café and the rest of the 350 Centre strata.
• The Ambulance Station and the rest of the Klatt Building.

Usage based charges are a future consideration, but if and when they are implemented, it's unlikely a property with a pool will see above average usage due to the pool alone.  Filling a pool is a one-time event and occasional top-ups will be no more than a family taking an extra shower..  Pools shouldn't drastically increase water cost.

Under a metered rate, properties that use an average amount of water will pay an average bill. Ordinary uses, including gardening, are not the largest causes of high use.  High use is caused by undetected service line leakage outside, and faulty fixtures inside.  It is those causes we need to detect. 

The Secondary Suite fee was originally implemented to account for perceived higher water use by properties with above average occupancy.  With usage-based metered billing, the amount of water used at every property will be known, and Council will be able to reconsider the justification for the Secondary Suite charge.  

Supplemental cottages or laneway houses as allowed by the Zoning Bylaw, known as Accessory Dwelling Units, will be metered separately, because they are detached dwellings.

Most grants awarded by higher levels of goverment are claimed against, on quarterly progress reports submitted by the municipality.  But this grant was paid in cash up front for $3,940,703.00, and the funds are in our bank earning interest.  That interest is required to be spent on capital costs of the program, but it provides further contingency funds for unplanned considerations.

Manufacturers all offer unique products but all modern meters include: 

• a connection to the water line
• an ultrasonic, turbine or piston volume measuring system
• a local mechanical or electronic display
• cellular or radio or Near Field Communications remote-read capability.  

The 3/4 and 1.5-inch sizes that will be installed in Lions Bay have 20-year batteries.  Meters available in the BC market look like this:

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Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) is a requirement of the provincial pilot program.  AMI meters measure the amount of water flowing through them and transmit that data via the public cellular network or a private radio network to a central platform, enabling near real-time leak detection. We have verified that cellular signal reception is adequate for all meter locations throughout the village.  

Select meters also measure pressure and temperature, useful when nighttime pressure turndown capability is used (part of the program in Lions Bay) and when in-network rechlorination exists (not in Lions Bay yet).  Some models allow flow to be throttled or shut off, but that's not currently planned for Lions Bay.

No particular adaptations of property plumbing is needed for meter installs, but homeowners might want to consult a plumber to ensure their plumbing meets code, for example that hot water tank inlets have a vacuum breaker installed.  Meters include a check valve backflow preventer to protect the distribution system from contamination entering from service line breaks.

Yes, property owners will receive instructions on how to register their their unique meter serial number on an online platform and access their usage data online.  Consumption data is protected by the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.  Usage updates every 15 minutes.  The metering platform immediately alerts the municipality to unusual and abnormal flows for investigation.

Yes, the Water Bylaw requires all constructed parcels in the municipality to be connected to the municipal water system, which will soon include property meters.

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Water meters are typically installed close to the property line, ideally immediately downsteam of the property's service shut off valve, so that the valve can be shut off for installation and so that the meter measures only usage on the property.  The existing underground municipal water service line is located and excavated, the meter is plumbed in, the hole is backfilled to municipal specification, a utility box is installed flush with the surface, and the meter's antenna is attached to its lid.  

If the service valve is on or over the property line, the meter box will likely be on private property—the Water Bylaw covers issues of access and right of way.  

If the service valve is not readily accessible, the meter will be installed upstream, on municipal property.  The water service line is temporarily frozen to stop flow, and the meter is cut in.  The Water Bylaw addresses how a leak occurring in the municipally-owned section of the line between the meter and the property line is handled.  

In unusual cases identified during the site census phase of the project, for example a paver-block driveway, or a retaining wall, or planned construction, the meter may be offset from the existing service line.  The Water Bylaw addresses who is responsible for the extra sections of line necessary in these unusual cases.  The municipality will always work with homeowners to ensure meter locations are not undue.  

SUPPLY CONSTRAINTS: It does stop raining, in July, August and September, when we still have only the water in three small creeks to rely on, flowing due to rainfall, snowmelt and groundwater only. Metro Vancouver Regional District's long-range climate projections, which in the absence of better information we take as given, call for longer and hotter summers, and about the same amount of precipitation as we see today, but in fewer, more intense events, and more as rain than snow.  If that's right, annual snowpack will be less than now, and it is already usually gone by mid-July, after which the creeks rely on groundwater flows that decline linearly until the next rain.  After supply has run past it's of no use to us, because we don’t store it: Lions Bay is too steep and too permeable to build a reservoir.

FUTURE TREATMENT: Not only must we consume no more than the creeks supply at any given time, we need to treat it.  Today that treatment is disinfection with UV using cheap electricity, and chlorine, also cheap and readily available.  As regulation tightens, we are contemplating the day when we will need to adjust acidity and alkalinity of treated water, or filter raw water, and then we need to be using as little as possible, because a larger filter plant costs millions of dollars more, and the flocculation and coagulation treatment agents needed for filtration are not cheap.

Lions Bay is too steep for a dam, and the ground too permeable for a reservoir, to store raw water. Those large structures on Harvey and Magnesia creeks are provincially owned debris retention barriers, and the creeks flow right through them.  The 500,000 and 100,000 imperial gallon (2,400,000 and 470,000 litre) tanks at the Harvey and Magnesia treatment plants store treated water, one to two days' worth depending on demand. 

Water is drawn at weirs high on three mountain creeks for disinfection by ultraviolet and chlorine at our two treatment plants before distribution through 16.1 km of mains and 16 pressure-reducing stations to approximately 580 users.

Watermains are laid under the roads, are big, and tough, and don't tend to leak.  The majority of Lions Bay's water leakage arises in service lines that connect watermains to residences.  

Most service line leaks are on private property, simply because growing trees in front and side yards have pushed poorly screened backfill into the line and damaged it.  There are fewer trees in the boulevard where public service lines run.

That said, the metering project also includes funding for metering to aid leak detection in the distribution mains. We know some parts of the mains network are slowly slumping downhill, and need to be carefully watched until they can be rerouted.  The upcoming Centre-Upper Bayview-Bayview (CUBB) watermain project will replace almost 2 km of asbestos-cement and cast iron pipe; the $1.3 mil. CUBB.3 subproject is funded, in design, and will break ground in March 2026.  

Lions Bay is too far away from the Greater Vancouver Water District to consider piping in its reservoir-fed water in, like most Metro communities do.  We make our own, to the same standards.

Reducing water consumption is certainly the prime goal of water metering in Lions Bay. Whether the community densifies is up to the community and its elected representatives, and sufficient water is only one consideration.  Other considerations include wastewater disposal, road capacity, housing mix, transit, schools, fire protection and more.  

Lions Bay's Public Works Department handles many services, but our single biggest priority is the capture, treatment and distribution of drinking water.  Find copious detail in:

• Annual Water Quality Reports, submitted every year to our regulator, Vancouver Coastal Health.
• Source Water Protection Plan referenced by the Annual Water Quality Reports.