To offset potential increases in costs to residents while many are taking stay-at-home measures, the Town of Cochrane has temporarily adjusted its lowest thresholds for water consumption until June 30.

Last night, town council approved a proposal presented by Katherine Van Keimpema, general manager of corporate services, that recognizes people will be using more water at home than usual during the pandemic. 

The basic threshold has been raised to 20 cubic metres from 15 cubic metres. That will lower the consumption cost to $1.22/cubic metre from $1.72/cubic metre.

The second pricing tier was adjusted to 20 to 30 cubic metres.

Van Keimpema says analysis shows that about 40 per cent of residential accounts will have consumption within the current second tier in April, compared to 22 per cent during a typical winter month.

Increasing the range of use in the first tier will bring the projected number of accounts in the second tier down to approximately 20 per cent.

With this change, the anticipated second tier revenue would stay at the budgeted amount, rather than increasing by approximately $5,000 per month.