{"id":711901,"date":"2026-06-03T08:50:24","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T08:50:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/711901\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T08:50:24","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T08:50:24","slug":"businesses-residents-asked-to-conserve-water-as-treatment-plants-face-challenges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/711901\/","title":{"rendered":"Businesses, residents asked to conserve water as treatment plants face challenges"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<br class=\"clr\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"posted\">By Lethbridge Herald on June 2, 2026.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<img src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/water-conservation-oldman-400x300.jpg\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"  \/>Herald photo by ALEJANDRA PULIDO-GUZMAN<br \/>\nThe Old Man River can be seen flowing at a higher level than usual Monday afternoon following heavy rain over the weekend.<\/p>\n<p>By Alejandra Pulido-Guzman<\/p>\n<p>Lethbridge Herald<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The City of Lethbridge is asking residents and businesses to conserve water as heavy rainfall is creating challenges in the water and wastewater treatment plants.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>General manager of Water, Wastewater, and Electric Utilities for the city of Lethbridge, Jason Drenth explained that over the last few days, heavy rainfalls washed a large amount of mud and debris into the Old Man River, and this is creating some challenges for the city of Lethbridge Water Treatment Plant.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne of the main things we want to stress is the water is clean and safe to drink, even though we are having some challenges down there,\u201d said Drenth. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He said to protect and maintain the safe treatment standards, water production has had to be reduced.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat this means is, we\u2019re currently producing water at less than current demand. So, we\u2019re making that demand up using our storage reservoirs across the city,\u201d said Drenth. \u201cBut in order to help keep our system running smoothly over the next few days, the city of Lethbridge is asking everyone, residents, and businesses, to cut back on any nonessential water use.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He said this includes, but is not limited to, washing your car, restricting indoor use to essential purposes like drinking and cooking, keeping showers short, and delaying laundry and the use of dishwashers.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd please, don\u2019t stockpile water,\u201d said Drenth. \u201cIf everybody goes out and starts filling up bottles, jugs, pots and pans, it really floods the system, which could actually aggravate the water treatment plant that much more.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When talking about the difference it makes when residents conserve water, Drenth said going back two years ago, when the city was in drought conditions and during the summertime asked residents to conserve water, it made a significant difference.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe were seeing 10 to 15 per cent reductions in water usage through that time. So, it does make a difference. Every little drop helps,\u201d said Drenth. \u201cAt the same time, the city departments are also suspending non-essential water using activities and reducing internal consumption where appropriate.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He said these measures will stay in place until further notice and added that teams at both plants continue to monitor conditions and are striving to make sure we get through this without any major service disruptions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt the wastewater treatment plant, conditions are currently stable right now. We do have a lot of runoff that comes from a system like this, but in some respects, it actually helps us, because it reduces the strength of the water going into the plant,\u201d said Drenth.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He said the water coming in from the rain is a lot cleaner than what they get from residents and industries. And therefore, it helps a little bit, but to a point.<\/p>\n<p>16<br \/> -15\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t<br class=\"clr\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Lethbridge Herald on June 2, 2026. Herald photo by ALEJANDRA PULIDO-GUZMAN The Old Man River can be&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":711902,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,295,66],"class_list":["post-711901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=711901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711901\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/711902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=711901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=711901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=711901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}