Williams Lake is down from five wells to three, leaving Water Wise educator Jenny Howell talking water conservation.
While Howell always talks water conservation for her job with the Cariboo Chilcotin Conservation Society as the Water Wise educator, the importance of conservation of water resources for the community are currently more important than ever.
Lawn and garden use is considered the main contributing factor to an increase of 50 per cent in water use during summer months, and so one easy way to ease this strain on limited water resources is to decrease lawn watering -or even to let it go golden.
While many want to maintain their lawns for aesthetic and FireSmart reasons, there are still ways to reduce the use of valuable drinking water on lawns. Keeping lawns longer by raising your lawnmower and reducing watering to twice-weekly 30-minute waterings can help residents keep it green while also keeping it realistic, explained Howell.
Longer grass needs less water and less frequent watering encourages deeper roots, which makes the grass more drought-resistant and able to withstand our increasingly hot, dry summers. Howell said a simple rain gauge for property owners is putting out an empty tuna can when sprinkling. When the tuna can fills up, that’s enough water.
Another option for people is xeriscaping, planting native and drought-resistant plants and removing lawn to reduce the need for watering. The Cariboo Chilcotin Conservation Society has pamphlets on drought-resistant plants and xeriscaping available in printed copies and on their website at conservationsociety.ca.
A recent post on the Cariboo Chilcotin Conservation Society Facebook Page explains how Williams Lake’s drinking water for the community comes from an aquifer located 70 metres down, under a layer of clay.
While the aquifer is recharged slowly over time as rain and snow melt filter down through the ground where permeable surfaces allow, the process is believed to take about seven years.
Less than one percent of the Earth’s water is available for drinking, so conservation is key to sustainability.
The city of Williams Lake uses monitoring wells to keep an eye on supply, and while the three wells are still able to fulfill water needs for the community and the aquifer is stable, it is still important to conserve what we have because there is no backup.
Pat Mahood, manager of public works, said the city’s in okay shape, and the reduction in residential use through conservation helps save the city -and therefore taxpayers- money in terms of helping keep utility rates low by reducing energy bills.
“The Cariboo Chilcotin Conservation Society has done an awesome job,” he said.
Mahood said the city itself uses a central irrigation system for most of its watering, which uses a sensor to only water when necessary and prevent overwatering.
Mahood said the city uses the BC Government’s drought response plan to guide it if necessary during increased times of drought, but like most municipalities, it institutes basic watering restrictions during the hottest and driest summer months in order to reduce the risk of shortages.
From April 1 to September 30, the city allows residents to water lawns on even or odd-numbered days in accordance with their house number, and sprinkling is prohibited between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m.
Since the Water Wise community education program began in 2006, the city of Williams Lake has seen a water use reduction for residential use of approximately one third. The program visits classrooms, tours students through city drinking water facilities. It also includes educational radio ads, newspaper articles, distribution of Water Wise information at gardening centres, social media work and participation in local community events.
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