Changes to Iqaluit water delivery confuse homeowners

Iqaluit's Director of Public Works and Engineering Matthew Hamp is fielding phone calls from confused homeowners after his department mailed out a change of service notice along with the monthly water bill to homes that rely on trucked water.

The notice reads in part: "Trucked water services employees will be using your overflow and not your fill light to determine water delivery, so you have to make sure your overflow pipe is clear at all times."

Hamp agrees that message is confusing and he wants to clarify it for homeowners.

"Under the current delivery system, each truck patrols a given neighbourhood and fills the tank when they notice the light is off," Hamp said.

"This system is very inefficient and contributes to our high operating cost. So what we are proposing is a simple change, that each house would now be on a regular delivery schedule, with Wednesdays removed to allow us to do preventive maintenance on vehicles."

People who make a call for water on a Wednesday will now be charged $250. 

No change to how tanks are filled

Hamp says contrary to what his notice implies, the mechanics and procedures of filling a water tank is not changing — some water tanks will still be filled until the fill light goes on; others will be filled until water comes out the overflow pipe. 

"The guys were filling your tanks before, they will continue to do the same thing."

Hamp says communications got mixed up somewhere in city bureaucracy and the two different but related messages of a change in service, and a reminder of the homeowner's responsibility to maintain their fill pipe and water system, got combined.

For more information call public works administration at 867-979-5630.