Water Conservation and Restrictions

Water Conservation and Restrictions

Hot, dry weather can create more demand than supply. Water restrictions give our reservoirs and water treatment plants an opportunity to recover so that there is sufficient supply to meet essential requirements like drinking water and firefighting.

The Town of Redcliff has four stages of water conservation and restrictions in place in the event that water consumption may be higher than the ability of the Water Treatment Plant to produce and maintain acceptable levels of potable water.  Some reasons this may occur are:

• periods of hot, dry weather
• construction on water pipes and facilities
• unexpected water emergency (e.g. water pipe break, etc.)
• unexpected emergency with a water system component resulting in a sudden shortage of water supply
• planned construction on a major water system component
• the demand for water exceeds availability after water restriction has been in place
• storage reservoirs need time to replenish
• there is a water quality emergency

During Stage 1, you can reduce your non-essential water use by:

• limiting or not watering lawns
• not washing vehicles, driveways and house exteriors
• turning off taps while shaving and brushing your teeth
• taking shorter showers
• installing low flush toilets and low flow shower head and faucet aerators

During periods of hot, dry weather, Town departments have already discontinued or lowered the frequency of certain activities like hydrant flushing, sewer flushing and park watering. These are important but can often be postponed until water supply conditions improve.

During Stage 2, restrictions will come into effect for watering of lawns in the evening only on odd or even days and continued conservation of non-essential use of water.

During Stage 3 and 4, residents are asked to discontinue all non-essential water use, and all outdoor water use is prohibited.

It is important to note that the Town of Redcliff also manages water amounts to make sure there is sufficient water storage for firefighting.

 

Notification

The Town will inform the community of scheduled water restrictions or activities with as much advance notice as possible through the Town website, social media, and other means as necessary.  Sometimes, there are unplanned events that require an immediate water restriction. In these instances, we will alert the community as soon as possible.