Stricter water restrictions are coming earlier than normal due to drought concerns
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Lawn sprinklers across Metro Vancouver will soon go quiet, as the region moves straight into stricter Stage 2 water restrictions weeks earlier than usual amid drought concerns and a shrinking snowpack.
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Stage 1 restrictions typically begin May 1, limiting lawn watering to specific days and times. But Stage 2 — which bans all lawn watering — is usually reserved for later in the summer, when reservoirs come under pressure.
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This year, officials are skipping ahead. Here’s what you need to know about the coming water restrictions in Metro Vancouver.
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Sunrise
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What do Stage 2 restrictions mean?
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Stage 2 restrictions mean all residential and non-residential lawn watering is banned. There will be no lawn watering any day of the week and no topping up of water features like fountains, starting May 1.
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What can I water?
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You can’t water your lawn at any time — not even new lawns or lawns being treated for chafer beetles.
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But you can water trees, shrubs and flowers any day, from 5 a.m. to 9 a.m. if using an automatic or manual sprinkler, and any time if hand-watering or using drip irrigation. Vegetable gardens can be watered any time.
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Non-residential properties are under the same restrictions, except they get an extra hour to water using automatic or manual sprinklers, starting at 4 a.m.
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Why are we going straight to Stage 2 restrictions?
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Metro Vancouver said it is activating Stage 2 restrictions earlier this year amid drought concerns, with below-normal snowpack levels and forecasts indicating a dry summer ahead.
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“It’s very easy to see the mountains have barely any snow,” said Metro Vancouver chief administrative officer Jerry Dobrovolny during a Saturday board meeting. “At this point, our snowpack is about half of normal and considerably lower than it was of last year.”
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Metro Vancouver residents use about one billion litres of treated water per day, but that amount spikes during warm weather, primarily due to lawn watering and outdoor use.
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In the summer, outside use causes demand to spike by more than 50 per cent, and even double during peak periods, said Dobrovolny.
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What’s the status of the snowpack?
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Provincially, B.C.’s mountain snowpack is at near normal levels, at 92 per cent — higher than last year’s average of 79 per cent, according to the B.C. River Forecast Centre’s April 1 survey.
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However, that figure masks regional differences.
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The South Coast has a below-normal snowpack, at 57 per cent of normal, with some stations recording near or all-time lows.
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The snowpack is also well below normal is other coastal and southern B.C. regions, including Vancouver Island, the Lower Thompson, Nicola, and the Okanagan, making these areas more susceptible to drought conditions heading into the spring and summer.
