We started our fall 2023 Newsletter with the statement “It has been an eventful year for VPID.” Looking back on 2023 though the lens of the current year makes that statement seem a bit ironic. This year, 2024, has tested the resolve, and the finances, of VPID, in a way that appears to have been unprecedented, according to observers who have been involved with VPID for many years. Happily, at the time of writing this newsletter our storage tanks are full, and we do not appear to have any leaks. The treatment plant is running smoothly, and we are in the midst of installing the plumbing for our new storage tanks, which will give us 10,000 gallons of additional storage capacity.
We started the year with a significant and difficult-to-find leak on Mariner’s Way. It took us far longer than usual to pinpoint and mitigate the leak, which we eventually achieved by contracting with a leak detection firm from Victoria. In the meantime, our storage levels dropped very low and it was necessary to bring in numerous truckloads of water from Vancouver Island. Once the leak was repaired we were able to re-fill our storage tanks, but at a slower rate than normal because of pressure buildup in our filtration tanks that limited the amount of water we could pump into the plant on a daily basis.
We hoped to address the pressure buildup by replacing the media (sand, gravel, charcoal, etc.) in our filtration tanks. There are three tanks, and two were due for media replacement. After replacing the media in Tank 1 on July 10, we did not see any reduction in pressure. We ordered replacement media for Tank 3 (Tank 2 media was replaced last year), and completed a second media exchange for this filtration tank on July 22. Unfortunately, this still didn’t resolve the pressure issue.
As we all know, water demand is substantially higher in the summer than the winter, not because our summer residents use more water, but simply because there are more of us on island. During the month of July, average daily consumption was around 18,000 gallons, but we were only able to pump about 15,000 gallons a day into the plant. By late July our storage tanks were nearly empty. Because our storage was depleted, we were concerned that supply lines would experience low pressure or even a lack of water, which created the risk of groundwater entering the lines if there was a leak. We decided to issue a Boil Water Advisory and notified Vancouver Island Health Authority (VIHA). Fortunately, the water samples we collected and sent to VIHA for testing never indicated any evidence of bacterial contamination, and the advisory was lifted in late August.
About ten days after the Tank 3 media replacement, we finally identified the cause of the pressure buildup at the plant. It was caused by an accumulation of media in the UV filters that are immediately downstream of the filtration tanks. Once the UV filters were cleaned we were finally able to pump enough water into the plant to match demand, except on long weekends when demand is especially high. Despite the increase in plant inputs after the end of July, it wasn’t until the end of August that our storage levels were finally above the 30% level required by the Mayne Island Fire Department. We also had a number of small leaks during the summer, which added to our water deficit and put added pressure on our overworked operations team.
Operations staff changes
In the spring of 2024, Rob Noyes announced that he was going to resign from his contractor position with VPID, as part of his “retirement transition” plan. Fortunately, we had recruited a new operator at the beginning of the year, Colton Emmerson. Colton is now a certified water operator, and is a regular contractor for VPID, working closely with Ian Cocker, and steadily building his knowledge of operations. We are really pleased to have Colton on the team, and the trustees are deeply grateful to Ian and Colton for their dedication, above and beyond the call, during our challenging year.
Winterizing your property
As usual, we like to use this newsletter as a reminder about winterizing your property. If you will be absent from your property for longer than 48 hours, please shut off your water at the roadside curb stop. If you are in doubt as to how to accomplish this task, please contact one of our staff or a trustee for advice, or email us at vpid651@outlook.com.
Taxes and Tolls for 2025
Our water system challenges in January/February and July/August necessitated the purchase of many truckloads of water to meet demand. This expense means that we will have substantially exceeded our water operating budget by the end of the year. The good news is that our expenses on the sewer side, and on the capital side for water, remained within our budget. Because of this, the trustees have decided to leave water taxes, sewer tolls and sewer taxes at our 2023 levels. However, our water operating budget, financed by tolls, will continue to show a significant accumulated operating deficit, made even larger by our extraordinary expenses this year.
To address this issue, and get VPID back on track to eliminate its water operating deficit as soon as practically possible, we have decided to increase water tolls by 10%, from $63/month to $70/month.
| Taxes | Tolls | Taxes | Tolls | |
| 2023 | 2023 | 2025 | 2025 | |
| Sewer | $57 | $48 | $57 | $48 |
| Water | $23 | $63 | $23 | $70 |
Our administrator will be in touch with all property owners in the next few weeks with specific information about your individual utility rates for 2025.