The City of Abbotsford’s P3 Stave Lake water bill came due at Monday’s council meeting.

Close to $1 million spent to secure the P3 proposal went down the drain when voters rejected the plan during the November referendum, according to a city staff report presented to council.

Abbotsford, assisted in part by the District of Mission, paid out a total of $974,791 for the P3 grant application process and its communications strategy in advance of the referendum.

Close to $648,000 was spent on the grant application process to secure the $65 million promised by the federal government for the P3 plan.

A further $326,965 was spent on the Abbotsford’s communication campaign to convince voters to support the project in advance of the election.

City staff originally projected the communication strategy would cost around $200,000.

Those figures do not include the additional $2.6 million spent to develop the Stave Lake facility.

Development costs for the project won’t go to waste if council decides to go ahead with Stave Lake under a traditional funding method, said Tracy Kyle, director of water and solid waste.

“If council gives direction to go ahead with Stave Lake, that would be the best case scenario,” said Kyle, adding that regardless of the procurement model selected, the costs would essentially be the same.

Mission’s share of costs for the grant application and development before the district pulled out of the project in April, 2011 is expected to be around $95,000, said Kyle.

In addition to the bill, Abbotsford must determine how to meet its future water needs.

Staff asked council for approval to develop a stopgap plan to meet demand once the Bevan Wells go off line in December 2015 and before the establishment of a new long-term supply.

With the rejection by voters of the Stave Lake P3 plan and its $65.7 million in federal funding, developing a short-term solution is critical, stated the report.

The city and taxpayers will face higher long-term costs and increased risk around having an adequate water supply,

The best path forward would be for a new Stave Lake plan that could be constructed by the summer of 2018.

Any other proposed short- or long-term projects would likely come on line between 2121 and 2024.

“Stave Lake is the quickest option because of the amount of work we’ve done,” said Kyle.

“Any other option we have to start from ground zero with the permitting process . . . which would be an additional two years minimum.”

Other short-term solutions could include pushing conservation goals beyond the already planned 20 per cent reductions and continuing to use tiered water rates to reduce peak demand.

The city would press the province to get approval for the already applied for flow increases from Cannell Lake and extension for the use of the Bevan wells beyond 2015.

Watering bans are something the city may have to rely on in the future, said Kyle.

The 10 per cent annual increases to water rates are also still going ahead.

“There’s the expectation it will be 10 per cent,” said Kyle.

“But it will depend on how much money council wants to put in reserve for a future water supply.”

However, Kyle was confident a solution would be found to meet Abbotsford’s water needs.

“No matter what, we’re going to make sure we don’t run out of water,” said Kyle, adding conservation will play an increasingly important role in the future.