VANCOUVER — Annual lawn sprinkling regulations take effect across the Vancouver area on Sunday, two weeks earlier than normal.
Metro Vancouver board chairman Greg Moore says the regional district learned many lessons from the 2015 drought and wants to ensure an adequate supply of high-quality treated drinking water for the region.
He says the early sprinkling rules this year will extend to October 15, two weeks longer than usual.
Metro Vancouver says the Seymour and Capilano reservoirs are currently full, and snowpack on the North Shore mountains is estimated at 60 per cent of normal.
Moore believes that should be enough to get the region through a hot summer, if the rules are respected.
The rules call on residents of even-numbered addresses to sprinkle lawns between 4 a.m. and 9 a.m. on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday, while those in odd-numbered addresses may sprinkle on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday.
"If everyone respects the sprinkling regulations, and many chose to simply let their lawns go dormant knowing they will green up in the fall, we hope to meet our conservation targets without escalating restrictions," says Darrell Mussatto, chairman of Metro Vancouver's utilities committee.
On average, about one billion litres of water are used daily in Metro Vancouver, but that number increases to more than 1.5 billion litres daily during summer.
Regulations have been effective in capping consumption, Moore says, adding sprinkling rules have cut per capita water use in the region by roughly 25 per cent since 1993, despite a steadily increasing population.
The rules apply to lawn sprinkling only and not to watering flowers, vegetables, shrubs, and trees.
"We encourage people to enjoy their flowers but not to waste treated drinking water on unnecessary outdoor aesthetic purposes," Moore says. "When indoors, use your appliances more efficiently by washing dishes and laundry only when there is a full load."
