A week into restrictions imposed by the City of Calgary on outdoor water use, city officials are noting a “noticeable decrease” in water demand.
According to the city’s water services department, Calgarians reduced their daily water use between 57 million and 87 million litres during the hot and dry days following the declaration of Stage 1 outdoor water restrictions. That’s equivalent to between 14 and 21 Olympic size swimming pools per day.
City officials said water savings were “less dramatic” as the weather cooled over the weekend as people adapted their water use.
However, city water services said it is still “early days yet” with more dry and hot conditions in the forecast.
“We are continuing to monitor conditions, and if the current stage of outdoor water restriction doesn’t result in enough of a reduction in demand for water, The City will escalate restrictions,” the city’s water services department said in a statement to Global News.
The typical daily demand for water in Calgary is around 650 million litres.
The city imposed the first stage of outdoor water restrictions last week in response to hot and dry conditions, and record low flow levels on both the Bow and Elbow rivers.
Under the restrictions, watering lawns, gardens, trees and shrubs with a sprinkler can only be done once per week for a maximum of two hours, and within specified time periods. House numbers ending with an odd number are allowed to water on Thursdays or Sundays, while houses ending with an even number may water on Wednesdays or Saturdays.
The ban includes washing sidewalks, driveways and exterior buildings walls, except for facilities and businesses that are required to do so under health and safety regulations.
Outdoor vehicle washing is also prohibited under the restrictions unless its for health and safety regulations.
When the restrictions were announced, the city said it would take an education first approach to enforcement.
According to city bylaw, there have been 80 calls for service reporting water use in violation of the restrictions so far, but no tickets have been issued.
The restrictions were imposed amid record low flow rates on both the Bow and Elbow rivers.
“We had lower than average snowpack, and then we had a really early melt… Our high flow or seasonal high flow, which is normally in mid-June actually happened six weeks earlier,” University of Calgary geoscience professor Cathy Ryan told Global News.
“On top of the low snowpack, early melt, early precipitation, we didn’t have very much precipitation in June, which is normally our wettest month, and we’ve had much lower than average precipitation in southern Alberta.”
Ryan said predicting river flows during any given year can be like a roll of the dice, but longer-term trends leaning towards “bigger floods and worse droughts.”
While rainfall, especially near the mountains, could make a significant difference for river flows, Ryan said the city might have to move to the next stage of restrictions if there isn’t much precipitation, as well as river and reservoir levels remain low.
However, Ryan said water use naturally declines as we approach the fall season, with the hope river flows return to average levels around November, when groundwater becomes a large contributor to both rivers.
“As we go into September, it’ll start getting cooler, and people will finish harvesting their gardens and and stop watering parts of their gardens and the city will be able to lift the restrictions,” Ryan said. “Then we’ll see what next year brings.”