Starting Monday, Calgary and surrounding areas will return to Stage 4 water restrictions for four weeks, as the city performs critical repairs on the South Bearspaw feeder main, and businesses and services in the city are already prepared to cut back on their water use.
From March 9 to April 9, the restrictions will be in place as the result of a planned shutdown for reinforcement work along nine segments along the feeder main that demonstrated significant signs of deterioration in recent inspections.
The city says it is critical for residents and businesses to use less water since the Glenmore Water Treatment Plant will be supplying most of the city and region, and will be operating at maximum capacity.
During this time, Calgarians will be asked to take water-saving measures to ensure the city stays within 500 millions of litres of water usage per day. Anything above the threshold increases risks of having insufficient water to fight fires, low water pressure and potential for a boil water advisory, or water treatment plant or system failure resulting in no water.
For Bow River Brewing, co-owner and co-founder Ian Binmore said they are already prepared, but are concerned about the impact of water restrictions on the business.
“We’re very fortunate in that we’ve already worked our processes and procedures along with the automation, so that we have so that we can take the water we use to cool a batch of beer then gets warmed up and goes into the tank and can be used as the hot water in the next batch of beer,” Binmore said. “So that and a number of processes, procedures and automation all means that we have some of the lowest water use of any craft brewery to produce our award-winning craft beers.”
Through this automation process, their brewery can fill the tanks with the water that they need at night when demand is lowest in the city.
“Again, we’re going to be minimizing the usage to the greatest extent possible and we will be taking our water during the periods of lowest demand so that there’s not a flow impact,” he said. “But it means that with our policies and procedures that we’ve already got in place, we’re already really super minimizing our water usage.”
The pools of the Shane Homes YMCA on February 1, 2018.
YMCA Calgary will be taking steps to reduce water use in their facilities, while minimizing impacts on programs and prioritizing health and safety.
They are asking guests to limit showers to under three minutes as it is the largest source of water use in their facilities. High water use amenities will only operate during peak hours, towel laundry will be reduced by 50 per cent, and housekeeping and maintenance will be adjusted to reduce water use.
They will also reduce the flooding frequency of ice rinks where safe and possible, consistent with guidance from the City of Calgary and Hockey Calgary, alongside communications with ice rental groups.
If pools and hot tubs need to be drained, they will not be refilled until reinforcements on the feeder main are completed.
All YMCA swimming pool will remain open and programs including swimming lessons, day camps, gym usage, and ice facility rentals will not be impacted.
Through different measures, YMCA facilities reduce their water usage year-round. A few examples include using recycled water wherever possible, recycling pool water through constant filtration and recirculation, and using washroom faucet sensors to limit waste and having showers on low flow at 4.5 L/minute.
President of Fifth Gear Car Wash, Kumar Sharma, said their facilities will also work with the city’s restrictions in the coming weeks.
“Fifth Gear Car Wash is committed to support the City of Calgary’s initiative to conserve water, and we at Fifth Gear Car Wash have measures to ensure water is used conservatively and efficiently,” he said.
Sharma said he anticipates better communication between the city and businesses that rely on water use.
“So far, the City of Calgary has not sent us any guidelines and hopefully this time around, the City of Calgary would have better financial plans to support small businesses ahead of time,” Sharma said. “In a similar situation in the past, the city had support large businesses.”