City calls on Calgarians to save water again as Stage 4 restrictions return

The City of Calgary hopes residents will again work to conserve water as Calgarians once again face strict water use rules.

"At 12:01 this morning, we moved into the Stage 4 outdoor water restrictions," said Francois Bouchart, the City of Calgary's director of capital priorities and investment, on Monday. 

"Your cooperation with these and collective effort to use less water indoors are essential for everyone to continue to have access to clean, safe drinking water."

Bouchart said the Bearspaw feeder main will be shut down on Tuesday.

It's the first step of a major construction project that will start this week, seeing crews reinforcing 21 pipe segments ahead of winter.

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For the most part, it’s the same restrictions as when the water main first burst in June.

All outdoor water use is banned, including using hoses with spray nozzles, hand watering and watering of grass.

Collected rain water does not count as part of the restrictions.

People are also asked to cut back on laundry, dishes and toilet flushing, with the aim of using 25 per cent less water than usual.

While the city is taking an education-first approach, fines starting at $3,000 can be imposed on those who break the water restrictions.

"Our target for water use is 450 million litres each day from now until the end of September when repairs are complete, and we can return the feeder main to service," Bouchart said.

The city warns that using more than 450 million litres of tap water a day could deplete underground reserves, leading to a city-wide boil water advisory and other challenges.

"In my history with the city, we have never had to go on a boil water advisory because a reservoir was too low. That's an indication of the hard work and expertise that the teams that work on these systems have in terms of making sure that doesn't happen.

"But it could happen for this specific event."

The city is reopening three spots for businesses to pickup non-potable river water for life-saving services and health and safety regulations.

Calgarians were able to use less water than that during the last round of restrictions.

Mintz Smartwash, a Calgary car wash, is doing its part by trucking in 60 cubic metres of water from Aldersyde.

“All business this time are being asked to do their part, which I think is a much more balanced approach,” said CEO Chris Friesen.

When the restrictions initially were rolled back in June, the car wash was forced to shut down. It eventually trucked in 100 per cent of its water, and with the city entering Stage 4 again, it is trucking in 25 per cent.

“The actual fresh water use in our facility is actually very, very low. I equate it to three toilet flushes to make it easy for, everyone to understand how much water gets used on each car.”

Through their filtration process up to 80 per cent of their water is recycled.

Construction is set to last until Sept. 23.