Vancouver’s Stage 2 water restrictions took effect Friday, with multiple water basins surrounding the Lower Mainland experiencing extreme drought conditions.
Under the new rules, residents can’t water their lawns, top up or fill aesthetic water features, or power-wash their driveways and sidewalks, unless it’s for a health and safety reason or to prepare the surface for painting or other treatments. Commercial cleaning operations are still permitted.
According to the city, residential watering of trees, shrubs and flowers is allowed between 5 a.m. and 9 a.m. with a sprinkler, or any time of the day by hand or with drip irrigation. Edible plants are exempt.
When it comes to golf courses and athletic fields, owners and operators are restricted to their approved water-use plans.
The city will keep spray parks and wading pools will open as a cooling measure, but cease lawn-watering and running aesthetic water features in 250 parks and greenspaces across the city.
The region’s use of drinking water increases between 50 and 80 per cent in the summer, primarily due to lawn watering, the city said in a news release. Vancouver, however, tends to have a much lower increase in summer water use compared to other areas in the region “due to strong outreach and enforcement programs,” it added.
As it stands, 28 of its 34 water basins across the province are ranked in either the most severe or second-most severe classifications of drought. In Metro Vancouver, Stage 2 restrictions haven’t been enacted since 2015.
Metro Vancouver’s drinking water reservoir remains within normal range for now. Richmond Mayor Malcolm Brodie, chair of Metro Vancouver’s water committee, urged people to follow the rules so it stays that way.
“If you don’t water your lawn, the grass will turn brown but it won’t die,” he said Friday. “We’ve had the hot and dry weather now for a few months, and we’ve seen that in Metro Vancouver, for some reason the water usage per capita is 20-per-cent higher this year than it has been in the past.
“Just to make sure we get through to the fall, when we can count on cooler temperatures and more rain … don’t water your lawn. Frankly, I don’t think that’s too big of a sacrifice for anybody to make.”
Violations of the city’s watering restrictions may be met with fines between $250 and $10,000. Fines begin at $500 under Stage 2 restrictions and increase to a minimum of $750 under Stage 3.
Brodie said it would be unusual and “unlikely” that Metro Vancouver would reach Stage 3.