Halifax area water restrictions still in place despite rainfall

More rain is needed to end the water woes in Nova Scotia.

As Andrew Scott’s looks inside his dug well in Oakfield, just outside of Halifax, he sees it filled to the top. He says it’s because he hasn’t used it in two years.

“I was constantly hauling water, I had to reserve water, couldn’t use it like I normally do.”

That’s when he decided to have a new one drilled. Scott says the company had to go down 180 feet before striking water.

“It tells you that the water table is going down. They’re slapping more and more houses in and there’s no water there for more and more houses.

I’ve got three boys and a wife and me and if I didn’t put it in, I didn’t have enough water for anything."

For those in the Dartmouth area on the Lake Major supply, officials with Halifax Water say despite the recent rainfall, they’re a long way from lifting mandatory conservation measures that have been in place since Sept. 10.

“We’ve had a significant amount of rain over the last little while but in reality we need another 100 - 200 mL of water before we can actually get up to normal levels again,” says Halifax Water senior communications manager, Jeff Myrick.

The utility is getting some relief from customers as well. Myrick adds that an average household will use 250 litres of water per person, per day but there has been a drop in usage since the restrictions were implemented.

“At one point we were down at least 11 per cent from what the consumption levels were prior to the mandatory restrictions,” he said.

Myrick says it takes a few days to accurately measure the effect of the rainfall because it takes time for the water to drain into the lake.

The city’s other main supply serving areas like the Halifax peninsula, Bedford and Lower Sackville is also low.

“Even at Pockwock we’re down 10 feet at the lake so it just gives you the magnitude of how much water we actually need to recharge the lakes,” Myrick says.

While the recent rain has been useful, Myrick says the amount of rain and snow that falls throughout the winter is what will replenish the water supply for the summer.

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