Fernie is taking water conservation seriously as City Council has given the first three readings to a proposed bylaw aiming to regulate the community’s water use.
The Water Conservation and Regulation Bylaw comes as the city takes cautionary statements from the B.C. Government regarding the possibility of prolonged droughts throughout the year.
Fernie’s Director of Engineering and Public Works Dustin Haeusler said the city currently has no way to regulate water infrastructure.
“We have seen outdoor water abuse from excessive watering, accessing the city’s infrastructure and water theft without authorization, water distribution outside of the city for agriculture and other things that were unenforceable,” said Haeusler.
“Staff has seen water demand increasing, but last the ability to regulate outdoor water use and prohibit wasting water.”
In the past, Fernie has relied on voluntary water restrictions which Haeusler said helped, but there was a close call last year.
Fernie’s proposed water conservation bylaw used Cranbrook’s regulations as a foundation but tailored it to work for its water infrastructure.
“If you’re going to compare the Cranbrook bylaw to our own, they have their reservoir drawing down to 60 per cent and numbers way lower than we set our bylaw triggers,” said Haeusler.
“Our reservoir is not nearly the size of theirs. If we were to cut off water, we would be dry within 12 hours. We need to act quite a bit quicker and our notification periods for stages two through four have been shortened for that reason.”
The proposed system involves four stages with gradual tightening of allowable water use, such as fewer watering days and hours.
Vegetable gardens will be exempt from water regulations until stage four.
“The reasoning was with food security for residents, we wanted to let them to continue growing their gardens until we couldn’t allow it,” said Haeusler.
The bylaw will be up for adoption at the next council meeting.
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