After a months-long struggle with low water levels, a town on Newfoundland’s Avalon Peninsula may finally have a plan in place to deal with the problem.

The Town of Torbay issued a water conservation notice in July, which was later upgraded to a water ban in a bid to conserve water at North Pond. The ban prohibits residents from non-essential water use.

Mayor Craig Scott said the town is now finalizing a plan to pump water from Island Pond Brook into North Pond.

“Hopefully it’s going to be a good solution and we’ll go from there,” he told CBC Radio’s The St. John’s Morning Show.

He hopes crews can begin pumping in a few days, but they’re still waiting on test results of the water.

WATCH | Torbay may have a solution to its low-water problem:

Millions of litres of water to be pumped into Torbay reservoir as town strains to keep taps on

The Town of Torbay can’t wait for rain any longer. Beginning this week, the town plans to pump more than a million litres of water a day from a nearby river into the municipal reservoir. But they can only pump a little more water than the town uses each day, so the battle to conserve isn’t over.

“The calculations that staff have done, in a 24-hour period of pumping from there, we should be able to maintain the level of what it is right now,” Scott said.

Scott added any rainfall will also help increase the water levels.

“We figure we could pump like 1.5 million liters a day from the river into the pond. And you know, if that’s successful there might be an opportunity where we could increase that up to 2 million liters a day,” he said.

Scott said the town uses about 1.4 million to 5 million liters a day, so they would be able to stabilize their water supply.

Approximately one-third of the town uses the pond as its source of water.

Scott said water levels at the pond are approximately eight and a half feet below the normal level.

“It’s been an unusual summer. It’s not just our pond that’s down. I noticed Windsor Lake and Bay Bulls Big Pond and other water sources around the province are experiencing the same thing,” he said.

In July, the Town of Bonavista announced a water restriction notice. In August, it brought in a mandatory water ban to conserve water for drinking, sanitation and emergency services.

‘Last resort’

On Monday the town of Torbay posted on social media there were residents who were not following the water ban, and warned it can fine them.

“We are at a critical point in the year. It’s essential to raise water levels in the ponds before freeze-up. If we don’t, we risk facing similar or worse shortages in the winter and spring,” said the statement.

Scott said the town can turn the water off for residents who aren’t following the ban, which he called a “last resort.” He said the town is doing what it can to avoid getting to a position where the reservoir can’t supply water.

“The town as an entity, we only have so many levers that we can pull and one that we can pull the most is turn… off someone’s water — and we don’t want to do that,” he said.

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