Water levels high in area reservoirs
Email
Print
Letter to Editor
Share
Updated: September 02, 2009 4:01 PM
Summerlanders have taken the water conservation messages to heart as the reservoir levels are still high despite hot and dry conditions.
Scott Lee, water operations manager for the municipality, said the latest readings, taken last week, showed the municipality still has 67 per cent of total storage in its reservoir lakes.
This is comparable to last year’s storage, despite a hot and dry summer.
“We’ve done amazingly well,” Lee said. “We haven’t even emptied Thirsk Lake, which is good news.”
In June, before the reservoirs stopped spilling, the municipality imposed Stage 2 watering restrictions.
This limits residential irrigation to two days a week while Stage 1 restrictions, used as the default, allow watering three days a week.
Lee said the Stage 2 restrictions helped to reinforce the importance of being good stewards of the water resources.
These restrictions apply to residential users, not agricultural users who have a different method of determining water use.
At present, the municipal water plant is running at full capacity and Lee expects more than half of the water used in Summerland this year will have been treated at the plant.
Last year, only 36 per cent of the water used in Summerland had been treated in the plant.
v2
