Annual residential utility bills are now in the mail!
Every year the Town of Golden sets utility rates at the lowest amount possible to deliver current services, while still providing enough funding to maintain, upgrade and repair infrastructure.
Here are the services that your utility bill pays for:
Water Services rates and service charges support:
- Four groundwater wells with a combined total design pumping capacity of 76 litres per second. A fifth well was drilled at Dogwood Parkin fall 2023. Work will continue in 2024 and possibly in 2025 with well testing, licensing and construction of a well building.
- Five reservoirs with a total storage capacity of about 6.96 Mega Litres.
- Maintenance of approximately 39 kilometres of water pipes.
- Ongoing work to protect our water with a robust groundwater protection program.
- Operations crews ready to respond to address service interruptions.
In 2023, a new watermain was installed as part of the 6th Street North road renewal project to increase fire flow capacity in the downtown core.
2024 will be the final year of a 5-year program of remote water system communications/control equipment modernizing. In 2024 an Integrated Water Plan for the community water supply and distribution system will be completed. Work will also continue with the second year of a 3-year water system leak detection program.
Sewer Services rates and service charges support:
- A collection system that has the capacity to process 4251 cubic metres per day of effluent.
- Maintenance of approximately 36 kilometres of sewer lines.
- Seven lift stations and one sewage treatment plant.
Utility fees collected also play an important role in leveraging higher-level government funding for larger asset renewal initiatives.
In 2023 an over-capacity sanitary main adjacent to Station Avenue was replaced. This project was majority funded through our Development Cost Charge program.
In 2024, work will continue on the Integrated Sanitary Sewer Upgrades project, this includes improvements and renewals at the sewage treatment plant and some sanitary mains funded through a $1,085,651 grant from the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program. Other projects continuing in 2024 will include the replacement of the Edelweiss sanitary lift station and completion of the Master Sanitary Plan Update for the community sewer collection system. Also, 2024 will mark the final year of a 5-year program of remote sewer system communications/control equipment modernizing.
Garbage and Recycling Services:
- Garbage and recycling is collected from over 1400 households in Golden.
- Garbage (bear-resistant black bins) is collected every week and recycling (blue bins) every two weeks.
- Management of the single-family residential recycling with the Recycle BC program. Recycle BC holds contracts with many municipalities and regional districts to facilitate depot services, and transport of accepted materials back to large recycling facilities.
- For garbage and recycling tips, visit golden.ca/curbsidecollection
Utility bills arrive every year in February in the mail. Payment is due March 28, 2024. If you do not receive one, please contact the Town offices at 250-344-2271 or email utilities@golden.ca.