Members of municipal council are still working on the details of water rates for the community.
This year, Summerland will make the transition from flat rate water billing to a metering system, but the rates are not yet set.
Mayor Janice Perrino said the metering is needed to discourage those who are watering irresponsibly.
“We need to be regulating and penalizing those people who use too much water,” she said.
Over the past year, council has considered a number of billing options to achieve this goal.
Metering is already in place for agricultural water use.
The latest rate structuring model, prepared by Agua Consulting Inc., calls for a base rate for all customers, no matter how much they consume. From there, additional water consumption will be charged at three different rates, depending on the amount used.
The higher rates for the most excessive water use are an attempt to discourage people from high water use.
Perrino said the water metering is also useful as it can help the municipality to identify leaks in the system and determine how much water is used throughout the community.
Water rates will not be implemented until the fall, she said.