The Surcharge Program promotes the importance of industries having a pre-treatment system, good housekeeping and industry best management practices in place to treat wastewater onsite and help reduce the strength of wastewater discharged into our system. Reducing the amount of extra strength wastewater going into the wastewater system will reduce your monthly surcharge bill.

Wastewater discharge that exceeds the wastewater limits for three treatable parameters (see table below) set in the Wastewater Bylaw 14M2012 are considered extra strength.

A surcharge is applied to a customer’s monthly water consumption, in addition to regular sewer service charges, if wastewater strength is found to be greater than the bylaw limits.

Further information on how the wastewater surcharge is calculated can be found in ‘Schedule F’ of The City of Calgary’s Wastewater Bylaw.

The Effluent Metering Program is for business customers who return less than 80% of their incoming water to the wastewater system and use an average of 4000m3 of water per month. Some wastewater surcharge customers may qualify for participation in this program, however flow data from the business must be provided for review prior to an application being submitted. Participation in this program will provide a partial exemption from the wastewater utility charges under Subsection 40 of the Wastewater Bylaw 14M 2012. Additional details of the program and its requirements are outlined here.

Participants in the Effluent Metering Program pay only for the wastewater that is measured through a dedicated meter at their site. Sampling and testing are completed in the same manner, but the calculated surcharge factor is multiplied by the measured volume of water from the effluent meter rather than by the water consumption.

• Total Kjeldahl Nitrogen (TKN) and Total Phosphorus (TP) will be added to the surcharge calculation to reflect the cost of treatment to reduce their impact on river health.
• The surcharge calculation will be simplified to ensure customers understand the amount paid for each substance.
• Customer self-sampling and electronic reporting is being implemented.

Full details of the surcharge formula and how it is calculated can be found in Wastewater Bylaw 14M2012, Schedule F

1. R = 0.1143B + 0.1147S + 0.1947G
   • R – rate in cents per cubic meter
   • B – amount of BOD (mg/L) that exceeds 300 mg/L
   • S – amount of TSS (mg/L) that exceeds 300 mg/L
   • G – amount of O&G (mg/L) that exceeds 100 mg/L
   • Numeric multipliers – represent cost to treat wastewater for each contaminant
      
2. ODF = (R x V)/100
   
   • ODF – Overstrength Daily Surcharge Factor ($/day)
   • R – rate in cents per cubic meter
   • V - daily volume of billed water consumption (m3/day) OR measured effluent meter volume (m3/day)
   • 1/100 – converts cents into dollars
      
3. Monthly surcharge ($) = ODF x # Days in Billing Cycle
   • ODF – Overstrength Daily Factor ($/day)
   • # Days in Billing Cycle – between 28 - 35
      

Periodically, discrete composite wastewater samples are collected over a 24 hour period from an appropriate sample location point and analyzed in a City laboratory.