Official web site of The City of Calgary

The wastewater surcharge program

Business operations

The wastewater service surcharge is billed in addition to regular sewer service charges when our lab tests show that a business is releasing over-strength wastewater into the sewer system. This surcharge appears as a separate item on your utility statement.

How is the Wastewater Surcharge calculated?

Businesses on the surcharge program have their sewer water sampled and tested on two separate days and the average strength from the two tests is used to create a surcharge factor given in cents-per-cubic-meter.

This surcharge remains in place for a minimum of three months. After this period, we collect new samples, analyze for strength levels, and calculate another another surcharge factor.

This surcharge factor replaces the previous one and is used to create the monthly surcharge, which multiplies the water consumption of the facility by the new surcharge factor.

For more information about the testing process and calculation of the Wastewater Surcharge, please view the following:

We do regular research with businesses to better understand the outlook and viewpoint of the business community. If you are a business owner, leader or manager, join our online business research panel, Business Perspectives.

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