Amid an ongoing heatwave that has seen temperatures spike to 30 degrees Celsius, the City of Terrace has announced a lawn watering ban effective as of July 6 at 12 p.m., lasting until July 20.
Despite the ban, the city confirmed in a press release that residents can continue hand sprinkling flowers, vegetable gardens and shrubs using a controlled nozzle. The stringent measures have been put in place due to a significant rise in water consumption over recent days and to ensure the city’s water system can maintain an adequate supply for firefighting purposes.
“It’s essential that all residents do their part to help conserve water,” the city stated, adding that violating the City of Terrace Water Distribution and Sale Bylaw No. 1326-1993 could lead to fines of up to $500. The city last implemented a lawn watering ban in 2021.
City of Terrace Communications Advisor Tyler Clarke clarified in an interview with The Terrace Standard that the primary issue isn’t water scarcity but the capacity of the city’s four water pumps to meet demand and maintain reserve capacity.
“Three out of four water pumps are running 24 hours a day, while the other is running 11 hours a day — and we’re barely keeping up with drawing water from the aquifers,” Clarke disclosed. “We’re asking residents to conserve, so that if there’s a fire or water main break and an excessive amount of water is required, our pumps don’t fail.”
READ MORE: Terrace implements sprinkling ban
Clarke warned that pump failure would necessitate sourcing water from the Skeena River or Deep Creek, leading to a boil water advisory. He also heighlighted that fires aren’t the sole concern behind this preventative ban.
“The ban isn’t necessarily because of the heat since you could have a fire any time — whether that’s structural or wildfire — but it’s the preventative part, where we need to ensure that we have water to address those concerns that’s really behind the move,” Clarke added.
When questioned about the feasibility of running all four pumps simultaneously, Clarke drew parallels to overworked machinery.
“Like with any type of machine, if you rev an engine 24 hours a day, it’s going to go down,” he explained. “Right now, we’re running it at the highest safe capacity so to ensure that the water pumps don’t burn out.”
Failure, according to Clarke, would mean resorting to groundwater sources and issuing a boil water advisory, an outcome the city hopes to avoid.
In the future, however, the city may find a solution. Clarke disclosed that funding has been secured for a study to explore options for bolstering the system’s resilience against boil water advisories while using groundwater from the Skeena River, or to consider new aquifers or pumps.
“We do have a study and we’re looking at issuing a Request for Proposal (RFP) for that,” Clarke concluded.
Viktor Elias joined the Terrace Standard in April 2023.
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