Calgarians will be asked to adhere to an outdoor watering schedule beginning this summer, as the City of Calgary continues ongoing water conservation efforts.

The new proposed water schedule comes on the heels of a major water feeder main break in Bowness and Montgomery that’s left hundreds of Calgarians without water and the implementation of Stage 4 water restrictions.

(Editor’s note: The current Stage 4 water restrictions are in place due to the Bowness water main break. The plan for summer watering schedules would occur outside this isolated event.)

The new plan is being presented at the June 11 Executive Committee meeting of Calgary city council. The City had indicated earlier this year that further watering restrictions would be put in place in June.

Once the new bylaw passes, Calgarians will be asked to only water lawns with sprinklers on any two days per week for up to three hours at a time, only after 8 p.m. and before 10 a.m. Should Calgary be in Stage 1 Water restrictions, that’s limited to 2 hours per week, and on specific days depending on whether a citizen’s house number is odd or even, between 8 p.m. and 10 a.m.

(Even = Wednesday or Saturday; Odd = Thursday or Sunday)

If Calgary reaches Stage 2 water restrictions, that’s shrunk down to watering lawns only one hour per week maximum. Beyond that – Stage 3 and 4 – most outdoor watering is prohibited.

At any time during the regular water schedule, Stage 1 or Stage 2, Calgarians can continue to water gardens, trees, shrubs and flowers, along with newly planted sod.

“Advancing water conservation is essential to maintaining a reliable water supply today and for future generations,” the City of Calgary admin report says.

Should council pass a suite of amendments including the watering schedule at their full meeting on June 18, city administration would declare the citywide watering schedule in effect and would remain in place throughout the summer, unless more stringent water restrictions are needed.

Taking necessary steps for water conservation

Ward 11 Coun. Kourtney Penner said that these steps are the smart and proactive thing to do given the region’s ongoing challenges with drought conditions.  

Right now, according to the City of Calgary’s drought page, which was updated on May 23, water supply conditions are normal.  Mountain snowpack is average for this time of year and is melting at a normal rate. 

The Bow basin, which has seen lots of rain over the past month, has flows that are normal for this time of year, and the reservoir storage upstream of Calgary, and at the Glenmore Reservoir are also normal. Between March and the end of May, Calgary received about 167 mm of precipitation, according to Calgary.weatherstats.ca.

“(The watering schedule) shows responsibility for water management and aligns with many other municipalities doing this already,” Penner said.

Okotoks, for example, changed already strict proactive watering schedules from two days and three-hour time windows to one day per week and the reduction of one hour of watering, from three to two hours.  Okotoks, a town of roughly 35,000 does draw from a much smaller water basin, though has plans to tap into the Bow River basin downstream of Calgary.

Rob Tremblay, co-chair of the Calgary Climate Hub, said it’s a responsible plan to begin thinking about how Calgary is going to deal with water as drought could continue to pressure the water system.

“As the climate warms, I think we’re expecting periods of years where we’ll be in conditions where we’ll have tighter amounts of water to ration between more people,” he said.

Generally speaking, Tremblay said the plan makes common sense. Watering at certain times of the day when the water is least likely to evaporate from lawns is just more efficient. Overall, it’s a straightforward and flexible plan, he said.

“When you’ve got a relatively finite resource like water is going to be increasingly for us, then you can either manage it like the city’s doing or you could send other signals like pricing that I’m sure folks would not positively receive some of the price signals if that’s the way the city went,” Tremblay said.

While water supply conditions may be normal today, they won’t always be, Tremblay said. Further, even if the city’s water supply remains stable and drought is kept at bay, Calgary must deal with explosive population growth and the same water intake.

“We will need to be thinking about how to use our water more efficiently, just for the sake of accommodating more folks,” he said.

“I think definitely like people’s appetite to deal with restrictions or just even changes in the way we use water probably will scale with the severity of conditions that we’re trying to deal with.”

The watering schedule doesn’t prescribe any specific start or end date throughout the year, but at the determination of the Water Services director.