Dartmouth-area Halifax Water customers now under mandatory restrictions

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Dartmouth, N.S., under mandatory water restrictions

Halifax Water CEO on conservation measures

Halifax Water customers in the Dartmouth area are now under mandatory water conservation restrictions due to ongoing dry conditions.

The restrictions are in effect for those served by the Lake Major water supply plant: Dartmouth, Burnside, Cole Harbour, Westphal, North Preston and Eastern Passage. An interactive map of the locations can be found on Halifax Water’s website.

“Lake Major has moved to the warning phase, which triggers the need for these mandatory Stage 1 restrictions,” reads a Wednesday news release from Halifax Water.

Brittany Smith, senior communications advisor with Halifax Water, said the restrictions will impact more than 120,000 customers.

“We need a significant amount of rain over several days,” Smith said. “So not your five millimetres here and there, we are needing 20-to-30 every day for several days to get our water levels back up.”

The utility says the following activities are prohibited by all residents and businesses supplied by Lake Major:

• watering lawns
• washing vehicles
• filling pools
• watering golf courses
• bulk fill stations serviced by Lake Major will be closed

The following actions are still being recommended to conserve water:

• If it’s yellow, let it mellow
• Shorten your showers
• Turn off the tap when you don’t need it
• Wash only full loads of laundry and dishes

David Blott, general manager of Brightwood Golf Club in Dartmouth, said they have a natural pond that holds more than one million gallons of water.

“The city water, for us, is always just a backup plan, a last resort, but of course we’ve needed it this year for sure,” Blott said. “We probably get 50 millimetres of rain, usually, as an average in July and August, and I think we probably got a tenth of that this year. It was a very, very dry season.

“Thankfully we’ve got the pond and hopefully we’re not going to have to draw any water from the city.”

Halifax Water says those who do not follow the mandatory restrictions may receive a warning, a fine, or their service may be suspended.

“We’ll have teams that are constables that are going out and around the city,” Smith said. “We’re also getting calls from people mentioning that their neighbours are doing it so we have a team that’ll be going out.”

More mandatory restrictions may be implemented if Lake Major levels are not replenished.

Customers serviced by Pockwock Lake are still under voluntary conservation measures. Halifax Water first implemented the voluntary conservation measures on Aug. 5.

A full list of ways to conserve water is available on the utility’s website.

-With files from CTV News Atlantic’s Jonathan MacInnis

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