Construction of meter chamber to track concerning sewer inflow and infiltration at Morningside Community comes in over-budget

Galen Simmons, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The cost of constructing a meter chamber to help address concerning inflow and infiltration of groundwater and stormwater coming into Wilmot Township’s sanitary sewer system from the private Morningside Community sanitary sewer system has come in nearly $80,000 over budget.

At its Sept. 29 meeting, Wilmot council awarded a contract for the construction of a meter chamber that will help the township track and measure water use and sanitary sewer output at the New Hamburg retirement community to Sousa Concrete at a cost of nearly $230,000 – up from the $150,000 budgeted for the project.

“This is one of the newer items that we have put in the municipality; we do not have a lot of (metre) chambers that we’ve put in,” said acting director of infrastructure services Ken VanderWal, responding to a question from Coun. Kris Wilkinson about the cost increase. “We did ask the industry; there’s a wide range of pricing. I believe I was told anywhere between $150,000 to $500,000. We did not fully account for some of the complexities of being on a one-way (water)main. It’s actually an MTO right-of-way at that location, so there are some complexities that we had not taken into account when we did our original estimate on it.”

A meter chamber is a protective enclosure designed to house water meters and related equipment. It serves to protect the meter from external elements and damage, ensuring its proper functioning and longevity. Meter chambers are commonly used in residential, commercial and industrial environments where a water meter needs to be installed underground or in a controlled environment.

In August 2024, a report on wastewater servicing for Baden and New Hamburg identified two areas within the Morningside condominium development as significant contributors to the current inflow and infiltration concerns with the Baden and New Hamburg sanitary sewer system.

Inflow and infiltration refer to the processes through which excess water enters sanitary sewer systems. Infiltration happens when groundwater seeps into sewer pipes through cracks, leaky joints or deteriorated manholes, and inflow is stormwater that enters sewer pipes through illegal connections such as rain leaders or basement sump pumps.

As these areas of concern are part of a condominium development, staff are looking at monitoring both the water being used by the condominium corporation, as well as the sanitary sewage flows exiting the development to address both potential water loss through the private system and higher-than-anticipated sanitary sewage flows from this system.

The condo development has significant lengths of private watermain that are not monitored or maintained by the municipality, so the meter chamber will be constructed as part of the Haysville Road watermain at the entrance of Stonecroft Way.

“For a development like this, we generally would have, for our security of supply, a meter chamber complete with backflows,” VanderWal said. “It was not required at the time based on the age of the infrastructure, so from that perspective, it is beneficial for us to put it in just to protect our (water) supply. The other side of it is we are unable to quantify and work with the property owner without fully understanding the amount of water loss and inflow that is coming from this.

“So, we would be unable to move forward with identifying where the inflow is coming from for this area. … With the meter chamber and the flow meter at the end, council would have the option to start billing (for water and sewer) based on actual water usage in and out, so it would be in (the Morningside owners’) benefit to address any leakages they have in their system.”

The construction of the meter chamber is expected to be complete by Oct. 31.