Annual water restrictions in place for Valemount
Swift Creek running low, though Village lacks hard numbers
“Right now, the easiest way to gauge the creek level is against our water intake building, which in normal years is underwater and you can’t see it at all. Right now it’s sticking out. We don’t have a formal mechanism of tracking the creek level.”
Anne Yanciw, Village of Valemount CAO
By Abigail Popple, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, RMG
The Village of Valemount announced last week that stage one water use restrictions will be in effect as of June 1st. These restrictions are put in place by default every summer, but they are especially timely this year as Swift Creek – which provides drinking water for the village – is running low, according to Village CAO Anne Yanciw.
Under stage one restrictions, residents are prohibited from using a sprinkler or irrigation system to water their lawns outside the hours of 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.
However, micro- and drip-irrigation systems – that is, systems that target the roots of a specific plant – and garden hoses with handheld automatic shut-off devices may be used at any time of day.
The CAO and Public Works Officer can decide to escalate water use restrictions to stage two, three, or four if they feel water levels are low enough to warrant it, according to the Village’s Water Supply and Regulations Bylaw.
Under stage two, residents may only water their lawns every other day, while stage three limits lawn watering to two days a week and stage four prohibits lawn watering entirely.
Yanciw told The Goat the Village does not have a specific benchmark to determine when these restrictions would be implemented.
The Village also lacks an official way to measure the amount of water in Swift Creek, she said.
“Right now, the easiest way to gauge the creek level is against our water intake building, which in normal years is underwater and you can’t see it at all. Right now it’s sticking out,” said Yanciw. “We don’t have a formal mechanism of tracking the creek level.”
Yanciw is concerned creek levels will not rise, given the Upper Fraser East snowpack level is at 59 per cent of normal.
Regions across the province are experiencing similar levels of drought, according to the B.C. Drought Portal. If the provincial government advises municipalities to restrict water use further, Valemount will follow that advice, said Yanciw.
However, the Village will be careful to justify further restrictions based on local drought conditions, she added.
“If we implement a drought restriction without being able to explain to citizens why we’re doing it, it’s that much harder to gain compliance and takes more resources to enforce regulations,” Yanciw said. “[It] doesn’t set the community up for a good relationship with the Village in the event of needing to take those sorts of emergent actions in the future.”
