With warmer weather and yard greens sprouting up, the City of Calgary is ramping up its education campaign on the newly approved outdoor watering schedule.

Calgary city council approved the Water Efficiency Plan last month, and with it was an outdoor watering schedule that put city property owners on an odd / even schedule for lawn and landscapes.

It was arguably the most controversial portion of the city’s water conservation strategy, which also included measures like acceleration of smart water metre replacement, conservation water pricing, and a large investment in reducing the leakage in Calgary’s water pipe system.

The outdoor water schedule began immediately after being approved at council and has technically been in place for a couple of weeks. But Rehana Rajabali, manager of Natural Environment and Adaptation with the City of Calgary, said that this first year will be all about changing habits.

“As it relates to the watering schedule, specifically, this year, it is all about education, because we know it is a habit change, and we know that it’s still going to take time for all of this messaging to trickle around and for people to understand that this change is happening,” she told LWC.

Along with spreading the message via local media, Rajabali said the City will be sending out a postcard in the mail, and there will be a water bill insert coming in citizens’ Enmax bill in June.

“I really want to emphasize with the schedule, it is a significant change this,” she said.

“It’s a small change in habit, but it’s new.”

Though it’s been two weeks, and the story was covered extensively by local media, water use in Calgary is still going up according to the City of Calgary’s water demand dashboard.

As of May 12, Calgary’s water use had jumped to 584 million litres from an average of about 525 million litres per day over the past month.

Chipping in to conserve Calgary’s water

Rajabali said that the goal of the water scheduling is to help spread water use more evenly throughout the week, and manage peak day demand, particularly when it’s hot out.

“That, in turn, helps to reduce pressure on our water system during hot weather,” she said.

“It also helps us make better use of our water infrastructure capacity. It also helps to make sure that we have a reliable water supply for a growing city.”

All properties must follow the numbered schedule, though there are some exemptions. Those include anyone who isn’t using potable water – from golf courses using stormwater, to residents using rainwater – and water managed sites, which are locations that have a certified waterwise system (rain sensors, soil moisture sensors, overnight watering).

When there’s a shared yard/irrigation system, the lower number of the attached dwellings is the one that abides by the watering schedule for both.

Rajabali said that while there is a new watering schedule in place, it won’t necessarily impact potential Stage 4 outdoor water restrictions where all outdoor water use is curtailed. Instead, it could limit the need for early-stage water restrictions, she said.

“It could help us reduce the likelihood of going into the earlier stages of restrictions, because up until this year, we didn’t have a schedule that could help us spread out the demand as a day-to-day practice,” she said.

Rajabali said that even with the water restriction, Calgarians and their families can still run through the sprinkler, water gardens, fill your pool or wash your deck.

“There’s lots and lots of flexibility built into the schedule. But what it’s really trying to do is take that behaviour that you know is a common part of everybody is we can just spread it out by taking turns,” she said.

While there isn’t likely to be any tickets in the first year, fines of $200 can be levied for not following the watering schedule.

For more information visit the city’s website.