The Town of High River and Foothills County have a new water agreement in place.

The general consensus around the Town's council table that it was a long time coming.

Mayor Craig Snodgrass says it's been over two years of discussions to get it signed.

"Deals like this do take a lot of time, they're complex and there's not just two municipalities that are involved, there's Cargill, there's Cayley, there's Aldersyde, a lot of pieces in this thing that all need to be addressed so it was over two years to get this thing done with a few delays that were to be expected with the election etcetera, so it got put on hold for a little while there," said Snodgrass.

He calls it a clearer deal with an increase in the water rates to bring it in line with other rates.

The Town will now bill the County for the water that goes to the Cargill plant north of the town and any issues will be between the company and the county.

"Cargill was a direct customer of the Town of High River with a separate water line and everything else, a dedicated water line and then everything else north of High River was under an agreement with Foothills County," he explained. "So what was happening was there was confusion as to who was responsible for what with water lines and whose line was whose, etcetera and it was always difficult for Cargill being located in Foothills County but being a customer of ours and negotiations any time those things had to happen."

Snodgrass says anytime there's more than one municipality involved it can get dysfunctional and so the new agreement spells out that the Town will meter the water that leaves the town and it will be billed directly to Foothills County and Cargill becomes a customer of the County.

He says this new agreement will encourage conservation.