Despite another round of public debate on how to pass a bylaw regarding sewage and drainage issues in Jasper, town council is awaiting more information before formally voting on the matter.

One particular section of the bylaw has proved the most contentious: how the town will handle replacing private sewage pipes on Jasperites’ own property.

In the newest version of the bylaw, presented at council’s August 3 public meeting, some of the most contentious parts still read the same. Blockages caused by “matter released from the property or by the roots of trees whatever the origin of such roots” are still the responsibility of the owner. If your pipe is blocked, you could have to pay, even if you had absolutely nothing to do with the roots in question.

However, a new section in the bylaw is able to supersede that section. It (section 6.3.1) reads that the municipal manager (currently George Krefting) is able to decide whether the owner of the service pipe is responsible or not for the blockage and then decide whether they have to pay for the replacement of the pipes or not.

That section will mean that if a company such as ATCO drives a spike into your sewage line, destroying it, then the town is not going to hold the property owner responsible, a concern that Mayor Richard Ireland wanted addressed.

The part that has caught council up in more debate revolves around replacing municipal pipes. Many of the pipes on private home sewage lines are decades-old clay pipes, typically six inches in diameter. When the town goes to replace main sewage lines which run to the private pipes, it uses four-inch plastic pipes and links them back to the six-inch clay pipes. The problem is that the different diameters could create blockages and the town could be held at fault and would then have to pay for private pipes all over town.

This could be a significant cost to the town. It was estimated that if the municipality just takes on the responsibility of replacing all the necessary private pipes in Jasper, it could result in utility rate increases of anywhere from five to 10 per cent.

Other hang-ups seem to abound.

Councillor Mike Day also wondered if there was a way to encourage people to replace their older clay pipes while the main sewage lines were being replaced. The machinery is there, the hole has been dug; wouldn’t it be much cheaper to replace private lines then, as well, instead of having to bring everything back at a future date?

As well, Councillor Day asked what happens when someone has the option to replace their pipes and decides not to do it, but then has a blockage. What responsibility does the town have to help them out?

Answers to these questions were not immediately available at the council session.

Questions about what happens when there’s a blockage in a pipe, and the pipe is dug up and removed before the town has had a chance to figure out what caused the pipe to block up in the first place were also raised.

Mayor Richard Ireland recommended that the bylaw be brought back to council after some rejigging before council gives it second reading.

“I see no great rush on this,” said Mayor Ireland.