LAC LA BICHE - Over the past few weeks, extremely hot and dry conditions across Alberta have triggered not only fire restrictions and bans, but also water use restrictions in various municipalities, including Lac La Biche County.
This restriction, which was brought on by increased water usage, came into effect on July 19 at 3 p.m. and was lifted on the morning of July 21.
According to Jon Skjersven, Manager of Utilities Services for Lac La Biche County, on July 18, the municipality produced approximately 5,000 cubic metres of water. Over half of that quantity, he explained, was used at the Airport and Plamondon reservoir truck fills.
“We were turning up inlet flows to keep up with demand but could not increase production fast enough due to concerns with stirring up excessive sediment in the distribution system feeding the Airport Reservoir,” Skjersven told Lakeland This Week.
Because low water levels were only noted for one day, the most efficient way to replenish volumes was to restrict usage, while County officials slowly increased inlet flows.
Speaking with commercial water haulers, Skjersven says a large portion of the clients they were hauling for wanted to fill swimming pools, or for other recreational uses.
Under this non-essential water use restriction, activities such as watering lawns, flower beds, and gardens as well as filling pools or using water for recreational uses was prohibited. However, because they have water-saving recirculation systems, the Paul Richard Memorial Spray Park in McArthur Park and Portage Pool remained open during this period.
“Additionally, we asked agricultural producers to postpone crop spraying,” he explained.
Thanks to the cooperation of residents, who did very well with complying with the restriction, water levels in area reservoirs were built back up.
“Because of their efforts, we were able to slowly increase inlet flows and rebuild our reservoir levels.”
According to Skjersven, while Alberta municipalities such as Calgary, St. Albert, Spruce Grove, Airdrie, Okotoks and Barrhead put water use restrictions in place during this summer, Lac La Biche County has not taken those actions since 2016.