Water restrictions in Carleton Place, Ont. approaching 2nd week

A sprinkler spraying water on a lawn. (Q. Hung Pham/Pexels)

It has been nearly a full week since the Town of Carleton Place, Ont. asked residents to refrain from watering their lawns and washing their cars in the driveway in an effort to conserve water.

“The Town of Carleton Place is asking residents to be cognizant of the need to conserve water this summer in order to ensure there are enough reserves in the water distribution system to accommodate emergency services,” the municipality says on its website. “The need to limit outdoor water consumption is directly associated with the increase of lawn and garden watering during hot/drought-like weather conditions.”

The town has a colour-coded system to give residents the opportunity to voluntarily restrict water usage and avoid a complete ban on lawn watering and other activities. Currently, the town says the water demand status is at its limit, or in the “red” category. The notice was first issued July 15 and remains in effect until further notice.

“Water usage is very high which is draining our water storage reservoirs and placing the water system at risk in the event of an emergency. Please limit all outdoor water use,” the municipality says.

This follows a lengthy heatwave in eastern Ontario. A heat warning was in effect for a majority of last week, with high temperatures and humidity in the region. Exact rainfall totals for Carleton Place are unclear, but data from the weather station at the Ottawa International Airport, the closest official weather station to Carleton Place, shows there has been just under 40 millimetres of rain in the first three weeks of July. The monthly average is around 90 mm.

“There is always angst when the town asks people to restrict outdoor watering. The reason for the request is because strain on the system endangers the ability of our fire department to potentially fight fires due to lack of water pressure in our system,” Carleton Place Mayor Toby Randell said in a Facebook post.

“People believe that our additional housing is the cause of these requests and while they do add to the usage, we never have these requests during the winter, spring or fall. Only during the hottest stretches of the summer months.”

Under the red level, the town is asking residents to refrain from watering lawns, gardens, trees, and shrubs using sprinklers or irrigation systems. Watering using a hand nozzle or a watering can is permitted.

Residents are also asked to refrain from washing vehicles outdoors, and are not permitted to wash down sidewalks, walkways, driveways, exterior building surfaces, or other outdoor surfaces unless it is for health and safety reasons.

Filling decorative fountains, ponds, outdoor swimming pools or hot tubs is not permitted but the “occasional top-up” is allowed.

The town says businesses are also restricted from many of these activities, but are permitted to manually wash exterior windows, use water for construction purposes, and water plants intended for sale.

The municipality is also restricting its own water use and will not be watering municipal lawns or gardens using irrigation systems or washing fleet vehicles except for health and safety reasons.

“Our goal is to reduce water consumption by 25 to 40 per cent,” the town says.

Carleton Place limits who can water lawns and when between May 1 and Sept. 30, especially in July when it is only permitted once per day between 7 p.m. and 11 p.m.

Randell says work is underway to increase the size and scope of both water and wastewater plants to keep up with the town’s growth.

“Even with this increase we would still potentially have bans in the summer due to our license with the province to draw water out of the Mississippi,” he said.

Some say the strain on water supply has been a recurring issue.

 “It’s basically how it’s been for my entire life. I’ve lived in Carleton Place my whole life. It’s been just a fact of life here,” said resident Ken Vaneraa.

Residents say they have been heeding the restrictions and adapting.

“It makes it a bit hard. They say we can water our flowers a bit, but we can’t have the hoses going. said Claire Roosterholt.

Guy Legault added: “We do our best here. We don’t wash the car anymore. We don’t sprinkle the lawn. We do very little handheld hose watering.”

With files from CTV News Ottawa’s Camille Wilson