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Landrie Lake Water Utility

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Water utility going up in Port Hawkesbury and Richmond County

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The first water utility price hike in over 20 years is planned for Richmond County and Port Hawkesbury soon.

Town of Port Hawkesbury Director of Finance says inflation is to blame for the first increase in the Landrie Lake Water Utility since 2002.

Brian Luciano shares with us that another public hearing will be held before bills go up for Port Hawkesbury Water Utility customers.

“With inflationary pressures, all costs have risen in general life, which the Landrie Lake utility would not have been excluded from. So just the overall general increase in cost for the utility needed to be taken into account for the price of water that we sell to the customers,” he explained.

“The Landrie Lake Water Utility supplies raw water to the Town of Port Hawkesbury Water Utility, the Town of Port Hawkesbury Water Utility then treats that water and distributes it to the residents and businesses in the region.”

He assures concerned residents that their costs will not subsidize any of the work done by EverWind Fuels. 

The Nova Scotia Regulatory and Appeals Board held a public hearing last week to discuss the rate increase.

Luciano says there will be another public hearing before bills go up for Port Hawkesbury Water Utility customers.

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Water rate hike may happen in Port Hawkesbury this year

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Port Hawkesbury residents may need to prepare for a hike on their water bill.

Councillor Iaian Langley says he believes it may go up 10 to 20 per cent for the first time in six years and that their rates are set on a cost recovery basis.

He says changes could come later this year after the Nova Scotia Regulatory and Appeals Board’s review in April.

This follows EverWind’s request to Landrie Lake Water Utility for possibly 10 million litres per day to supply their proposed green hydrogen project.

“When you consider the available safe yield, meaning how much can that body of water produce and replenish itself on a daily basis, it’s well within its capacity to do that,” states Langley.

“We know that from the science that we understand, and is approximately round figures, approximately one third of the useable safe yield per day.”

He assures residential customers they are of paramount concern to the utility and other industrial users, which is well laid out in their agreements without any dispute.

Langley says Landrie Lake Water Utility is co-managed by the Town of Port Hawkesbury and the Municipality of the County of Richmond.

“We’ve actually had more studies conducted by hydrologists and engineering firms than has been done prior. including, but not limited to, the bathymetry work, which determines the whole bottom shape of the lake to get acrid volumes,” he shares.

“Things are dynamic, not static. Evaporation rates change, and we’ve made adjustments to evaporation rates change. We’ve updated precipitation amounts, and how the reservoir is refilled.”

He says lake levels were monitored when experienced a summer drought last summer through engineering and hydrological studies to know what affects the average capacity of Landrie Lake.

“No user subsidizes another user. There is no rate increase because of any other single users,” explains Langley.

The Town is planning to hold a public hearing in May.