Residents asked to curb non-essential water use

LETHBRIDGE – Residents are being asked to do their part to help relieve pressures off the city’s Water Treatment Plant.

Concern picked up late Monday afternoon when officials say a sudden spike in upstream water runoff was proving challenging to treat for organic particles and the city was left relying on already treated water in storage.

The Water Treatment Plant was back to full production by Tuesday afternoon but residents are still being asked to only use water for essential purposes and avoid things like car washing or side walk washing.

Infrastructure Services Director Doug Hawkins says if the river does become muddy again there is a chance a boil water advisory could be implemented.

“If we have similar troubles and we can’t produce enough water to meet the demand we risk pushing non-potable water into the system and we would have to do that to maintain fire protection.  So it’s not just drinking water supply but maintaining enough in storage in case of a fire emergency,” he says.

Hawkins adds if problems do persist they’ll need to ask for compliance from big industrial and commercial companies which is something they hope to avoid.