The City of Abbotsford strives to provide top quality services at every tap at the most economical means attainable and instill confidence within our customers. We ask our customers to help us protect our water sources, which are the heart of our community, our way of life, and our children’s future.

The statute requires utilities to notify landlords of tenant delinquencies ONLY if the landlord requests notification in writing.  See below for the form for you to make this request to our office in writing. 

You are now REQUIRED to notify the utility in writing of the name and address of the tenant who is responsible for payment of the utility charges. 

The City is now REQUIRED to serve you notice of any past-due charges on the owner of the rental dwelling unit within 14 days of the date on which the tenant's charges became past due; which we typically do the week following the bill due date. 

If within 21 days of a tenant vacating the rental unit, the Owner provides the Utility with WRITTEN notice (see below) that contains the forwarding address for the tenant and the date that the tenant vacated the premises, then the Utility MUST continue to send past-due notices to the tenant customer at the forwarding address until the past-due charges are paid or until the tax roll process has begun. 

A pre-tax notice will be issued with past due balance as of October 15th.   This will include TENANT LIEN language; if you have entered into a written agreement with the UTILITY, you may utilize this process. 

A lien will then be placed on his/her personal assets 66.0809(3m)(a) and if landlord pays bill, then the lien will be transferred to the landlord.  66.0809(3m)(b)

On or before December 16th a list of liens will be delivered to the local County Court.  The Landlord has until April 15th to file his/her lien with the Court and have it appear on CCAP.

Residential Tenant Customers Who Move

If a residential or non-residential tenant vacates a premises, the utility must provide the property owner notice.  The owner has 15 days to respond to the Utility before the billing be defaulted to the property owners name. 

DEFERRED PAYMENT AGREEMENTS (DPA) with tenants:

"    If the customer is on a DPA - they are NOT delinquent

"    DPA agreements cannot be transferred to the tax roll/lien process

"    A DPA requires a "sizeable" down payment and installment payments until the debt is satisfied

"    Customers MUST pay current bills in full plus the installment payment or the DPA is in "default"

"    A DPA that is defaulted on voids the DPA - utility does not have to agree to another DPA for the SAME debt. 

The City has been granted an amendment to the City Tariff.  The Utility will not offer a deferred payment agreement to a residential customer who is a tenant if any of the following criteria applies:

1.    The residential tenant has greater than $100 of account arrearages that are more than 90 days past due for utilities that bill monthly.

2.    The tenant has defaulted on deferred payment agreement in the past 12 months.  This criterion only applies to deferred payment agreements and not to other types of payment extension agreements.

3.    The residential tenant is responsible for account arrearages that were placed on any property owner's tax bill in the utility's service territory in the past 24 months.

4.    The residential tenant has a balance that accrued during the winter moratorium that is more than 80 days past due. 

CENTRAL WATER TREATMENT PLANT

The Abbotsford Central Water Treatment Plant was completed in 1997. The 1 million gallon a day plant utilizes ozone to provide primary disinfection. Chlorine is injected into the treated water for residual disinfection.

The Central WTP relies heavily on the 3 original large diameter dug wells and 6 low yielding granite bedrock wells.

The 200 gram/hour negative pressure ozone system provides 3 log removal of giardia disinfection level. Using turbine diffusers to inject the ozone/gas stream into the raw water also provides for VOC removal.

EAU PLEINE WATER PLANT

The Abbotsford Eau Pleine Water Treatment Plant was completed in 2012. The 500,000 gallons per day and a total capacity of 1,000,000 gallons per day plant contains a redundant surface water treatment process.

The EP WTP receives water from 12 vertical collector wells. The raw water collection system includes 12 pitless units, 2 raw water meter buildings and over 2 miles of raw water piping.

The EP WTP process consists of air strippers to oxidize iron and remove radon, chemical rapid mix, four stage flocculation, including settling plates, trimedia gravity filtration, ultra violet disinfection, and chlorine disinfection.


PORKY CREEK WATER TREATMENT PLANT

The Abbotsford Porky Creek Water Plant was completed in 1999. The 175,000 gallon per day plant utilizes ozone to provide primary disinfection for 4 raw groundwater wells from the Porky Creek well field. VOC removal is obtained by air stripping. Chlorine is injected into the treated water for residual disinfection.

The original water system was constructed in 1900 and was privately owned by a railroad company. In the 1940's, the City of Abbotsford acquired the water system which at that time consisted of two very large dug wells and a bolted steal standpipe. The city bought a third dug well from a private milk dairy plant that had two vertical 12 foot diameter shafts and multiple hand dug 5 foot diameter tunnels radiating as much as 100 feet from one of the shafts. All three of the dug wells and the standpipe are still in use today. The City installed additional watermain to serve the growing community and constructed two conventional drilled wells.

The City of Abbotsford's water story took a turn in the late 1970's when the City experienced water shortages during a water drought. The City was able to drill seven additional wells during the 1970's to 2000. In 1997, the City constructed the Central WTP that treats water from 10 of the wells and is constructed over the top of one of the original dug wells. Shortly after this, the City constructed the Porky Creek WTP that treats four wells at a location northeast of the City. In the early 2000's water demand again was greater than the safe yield of the aquifer and the City added Wells 14 and 15. In 2012 the City completed a $12.6 million water project which consisted of twelve new collector wells and a new Eau Pleine WTP.

The geology in Abbotsford consists of Precambrian granite bedrock close to the ground surface with overlying glacial till consisting of mainly clay. Neither of these two aquifer materials is conducive for water storage. In rare instances, areas of sand and gravel can be found in the glacial till. The granite bedrock is largely devoid of cracks or fractures in the immediate Abbotsford area.

City of Abbotsford has upgraded all customer water meters to Radio Read Technology. The new technology will help keep more accurate track of water consumption and detect leaks more quickly. The new system will help the customer save water, money and also help the water utility to operate more efficiently, while providing an energy efficient, accurate and cost effective way for the customer and the water utility to utilize the billing process.

To improve water quality and minimize discoloration, the City of Abbotsford water mains are comprehensively flushed.  The procedure is performed in warm weather months and involves forcing the water through the pipes at high velocity, removing accumulated mineral sediment until the water is clear.

When hydrant flushing, you may have a period of low pressure.  Flushing may also lead to discolored water, if water is being used during or a period after flushing.  The discoloration is caused by iron (red color) or mangnese (black color) particles being dislodged from water mains.  If discoloration occurs, open the cold water tap nearest the water meter, usually in the basement, to clear the water. 

The City of Abbotsford will be conducting the bi-annual flushing program to clear out minerals that have accumulated in the City's water mains.  The flushing is accomplished by opening fire hydrants.  This flushing is necessary to improve water quality and maintain the integrity of the distribution system, which is mandated by the Wisconsin DNR.

If the water appears discolored, do not be alarmed.  After waiting, run your cold water for about 5 minutes to verify the water has cleared.  If water does not clear, or if you have any questions, please call the City Hall at 223-3444.   

Water might be called our most recycled resource. The water you showered with this morning, for example, may have contained the same water molecules that caused a dinosaur's hide to glisten in the prehistoric sun or carried the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria across the Atlantic. The distribution of the earth's total supply of water changes in time and space, but the quantity has remained constant.

Uneven water distribution is governed by a phenomenon known as the hydrologic cycle, which is kept in motion by solar energy and gravity. A rain storm is the start of the cycle. As the rain falls to earth, some flows downhill as runoff into a stream, lake, or ocean. Some evaporates; some is taken up by plants. The rest trickles down through surface soil and rock formations, traveling through pore spaces and open cracks. This water eventually reaches the top of a water-saturated layer of soil or rock called the water table is called groundwater.

Groundwater seeps from upland to lowland areas and is released, or discharged, in lakes, streams, and wetland-low places where the water table meets the land surface. The sum release energy, causing evaporation from surface waters. The process that returns water to the atmosphere from water and land surfaces and by the activity of living plants called evapotranspiration. When water vapor accumulates in the atmosphere and clouds begin to form, the hydrologic cycle begins.

Wisconsin receives an average of 30 to 32 inches of precipitation per year. Seventy-five percent of that precipitation evaporates or transpires through plants and never reaches surface or groundwater. The six to 10 inches that do not evaporate immediately or get used by plants run off into surface waters or soak into the ground, depending on local topography, soil, land use and vegetation.  All groundwater moves continually toward an area of discharge, but the rates of movement vary greatly.

The reason for this variability is a matter of geology. The size of the cracks in rocks, the size of the pores between soil and rock particles and weather the pores are connected contribute to the rate of movement to, through and out the saturated zone.

Water generally moves more quickly into, through and out of coarse sand, sometimes as much as several feet per day. Openings between the grains are large and interconnected, resulting in high permeability. Very fine-grained material like clay has many pores are so small that moving water through or out is difficult. Clay formations are relatively impermeable-water may move only a few inches a year. Permeability in limestone, on the other hand, primarily depends not on pores spaces but on the size, frequency and distribution of fractures and cracks.

As groundwater moves through the water cycle, it follows the slope of the water table. In Wisconsin, the natural movement is from upland recharge areas to a lowland discharge areas.