Two-day rainfall totals could top 180 millimeters on the North Shore, as a powerful storm descends on the South Coast, bringing with it lots of rain and wind.
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Between 120 and 180 millimeters of rain is forecast for the North Shore, prompting officials with the province’s River Forecast Centre to issue a high stream flow advisory for the South Coast, including Seymour, Lynn, Capilano and Coquitlam Rivers and small streams.
“This can happen quite quickly and certainly when we look at rivers on the South Coast, they do respond quickly to rain, so we’re expecting those rivers to come up quickly over the next 24 hours,” said Dave Campbell.
The abundance of rain comes on the same day officials at Metro Vancouver were talking about water – and how to conserve it. Following this year’s hot, dry summer, Metro Vancouve’s Utilities Committee voted to adjust the start date for stage one water restrictions from June 1 – September 30, to May 15 through to October 15.
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“We do hope that if we start a bit earlier, maybe we’re able to reduce the consumption a bit earlier, which means we can go through the entire season without going to stage 3,” said Darrell Mussatto, the city of North Vancouver’s mayor and the chair of the Utilities Committee.
Metro Vancouver will also taking a look at the water shortage response plan, reviewing it to see what changes need to be made.
However, Mussatto said they’re also working on a campaign to help educate the public about year-round water conservation.
“You just look outside and we’re having pouring rain happen now and you think we’ve got a tremendous amount of water–and indeed we do for probably 6 or 8 months of the year,” said Mussatto.
“But, for those summer months when we don’t have any rainfall it does stress the reservoirs because the reservoirs are fed through rainfall. The snowpack only carries the reservoirs through June 1st. After June 1st, it’s just rainfall that fills the reservoirs.”
Mussatto said the reservoirs are healthy, but year-round consumption habits still needs to be adjusted.
“We’re doing some focus group testing now. We’re asking people what would influence them to make changes. So, we’re going to come up with some suggestions and some ideas and hopefully an education program to teach people that water is a precious resource and we don’t want to waste a drop and to let them know that just because we have a lot of rain now, doesn’t mean we have a lot of water left in the summer time.”
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