Utility Rates

Sewer Consumption Calculations
How does the Town calculate sewer consumption?

The Town of Cochrane tracks the volume of water delivered to your home and uses that number to calculate the water consumption amount on your utility invoice.

Water meters are read near the end of the month.  Utility Bills are issued around the 7th of the month for the previous month.

The Town does not have a way to track the water going down the drain, so we use your water consumption to calculate your sewer consumption.

For residential accounts that have account history:

If you lived in your home from November to April, you have an account history.

To figure out your sewer consumption, we calculate your average monthly water consumption from November to April.

If you use less than 5 cubic metres of water during a winter month, a value of 5 cubic metres will be used to calculate the average.

This average is then applied to your bill as your sewer consumption starting in June until November.

This method of calculating sewer consumption is called winter averaging. It is used to ensure that residents do not pay sewer consumption for outdoor water use during the summer.

From November until April, the sewer rate on your Town Utility Bill will be calculated using the water you actually used in those months.

For residential accounts that do not have account history:

Sewer consumption is billed at 100% of water consumption for November, December, January, February, March and April.  

Sewer consumption is billed at 80% of water consumption for May, June, July, August, September and October.

View the sample utility bill online to see where the waste and recycling collection and Eco Centre fees appear.