news

Cranbrook, BC (July 25, 2023) – Effective at midnight on Friday, July 28, 2023, the City of Cranbrook is mandating the move to Stage 2 watering restrictions until further notice.

This means that you are required to reduce your number of watering days from three days per week to two. Even numbered properties can water Monday and Thursday, while odd numbered properties can water Tuesday and Friday from 5am to10am and 8pm to 11pm. No watering Sunday, Wednesday, or Saturday until further notice.

This change does not impact your ability to water your vegetable gardens or edible plants.

“Over the last four days, we have seen a drop in our reservoir level of 7 inches and maintaining the level of water we have for our residents and businesses is of utmost importance,” says Jason Perrault, Deputy Director of Public Works. “We are not seeing enough water from nearby creeks and streams flowing in to replenish the reservoir, so we must move to Stage 2 watering restrictions.”

The Province of British Columbia raised the Drought Level for the entire East Kootenay region, including the City of Cranbrook to Level Four back on July 14, 2023, and requested a voluntary water use reduction of 50% by all water users. We are not seeing the voluntary compliance and with reduced flow into the reservoir, mandating Stage 2 restrictions is required.

We will continue to closely monitor the situation in partnership with the Province and will share any changes or new information with you as we move through the summer months.

During this time it is a great idea to take advantage of our free lawn and garden water assessments, offered through Teagan Lee, our 2023 Water Ambassador. She can assess your lawn and garden water needs and help you adjust your manual or automatic irrigation systems to make the best use of our water outdoors. Learn more or sign up at [email protected].

For more information about provincial drought levels in our area, you can visit the Drought Portal @ https://governmentofbc.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapSeries/index.html?appid=838d533d8062411c820eef50b08f7ebc.

For more information about water conservation, outdoor watering restrictions, tips on saving water indoors and outdoors, visit https://cranbrook.ca/residents/water-conservation.