Skip to content

How to understand your annual utility bills, and what they include

It’s the time of year when residents will receive their utility bill and it can be a little confusing. To shed a little light on this, here are some facts about water, sewer, and waste collection services in Golden.
10618119_web1_recycle-day-t

It’s the time of year when residents will receive their utility bill and it can be a little confusing. To shed a little light on this, here are some facts about water, sewer, and waste collection services in Golden.

Water services: Did you know?

Golden’s water is so good that it doesn’t need to be treated the way some other centres do. The water comes from a groundwater aquifer. Aquifers can be natural filters that trap sediment and pathogens to provide natural purification of the ground water flowing through them. In Golden’s case, the water quality is excellent and doesn’t require filtration or chemical treatments to remove contaminants.

•There are five groundwater wells with a combined total pumping capacity of 125 litres per second.

•There are five reservoirs with a total storage capacity of about 6.96 mega litres.

•Water is distributed to the community through about 39 kilometres of water lines.

•Golden’s water is not required to be continuously disinfected, though chlorine is added on occasion when the public works team is performing maintenance on the system.

•The operations department works hard to protect Golden’s water with a robust and ongoing groundwater protection program.

Sewer services: Did you know?

•Golden has about 36 kilometres of sewer lines.

•The collection system has the capacity to process 4251 cubic metres per day of effluent.

•Within the collection system, there are six lift stations and a sewage treatment plant.

•In 2016, the Town received a grant through the Clean Water and Wastewater Fund to complete one component of work identified in the Community Sewer System Improvements project. This work included lining of one aeration basin and one sludge digester basin along with replacement and enhancement of aeration equipment in both lagoons to improve the overall effluent treatment process.

•The Town is also in the midst of a final tendering process for other improvements to Golden’s wastewater system under a New Building Canada Fund grant.

Curbside garbage collection and recycling services: Did you know?

•Garbage (green bin) pickup occurs weekly and recycling (blue bin) occurs every two weeks. A curbside collection calendar is included with resident’s annual utility bill.

•Golden manages its single-family residential recycling with the Recycle BC program (formerly known as Multi Material BC). Recycle BC holds contracts with many municipalities and regional districts to facilitate depot services, and transport of accepted materials back to large recycling facilities.

•It’s Recycle BC, through an approved Ministry of Environment Stewardship Plan, that determines what can be recycled, not the Town of Golden. To learn more, visit their website at www.recyclebc.ca.

•Your annual utility bill will be arriving this month in the mail. If you do not receive one, please contact the Town offices at 250-344-2271. Due date for payment is March 29.