In January 2021, a metering committee was tasked by the board of trustees to investigate the issue of individual water meters on each property.
The metering committee organized a survey of the homeowners to collect opinions and ideas about individual metering in the VPID. The survey was open from January 9 to 20 and elicited 136 complete responses.
One third of the respondents are permanent residents, and the majority (43%) are non-resident, staying on Mayne between 40 and 100 days a year. The majority of respondents are over 60, and most properties (73%) have only 2 occupants or less in general. There is no obvious strong correlation between answers. Some 15% seem very opposed to having meters.
In general, respondents were hoping that meters would
- Allow VPID to charge water based on actual consumption
- Encourage water conservation
- Help detect leaks
However, the majority of homeowners would not expect to pay more than $500 per property for an installed meter, and would expect to spread this cost over 2 years.
A large majority is opposed to the publication of consumption. Sixty per cent collect rainwater, and 24% plan to do so.
We were agreeably surprised that the respondents made extensive use of the open-ended question at the end to convey their opinions; comments fill 9 pages. Many respondents used this to qualify or justify their answers to the earlier questions. In the comments, we see the same split of, on one hand, supporters of metering (“Let us pay for what we consume”) and, on the other hand, opponents to such a move (based on cost, inequity, ineffectiveness at water conservation). The comments also highlight a few areas that would require better information about our system (actual consumption patterns, leaks, limited supply), and about meters; the reasoning behind the comments seems to make some assumptions that are not valid.
This report contains the more detailed results:
Metering survey report (PDF, 12 pages)