The City of Surrey is allowing residents to fill pools and water newly planted lawns. Metro isn’t pleased and is asking Surrey to fall in line
Article content
When Metro Vancouver went into Stage 3 water restrictions June 8 — far earlier than in past years as concerns mount about drought conditions and a vanishing snowpack — the City of Surrey had other ideas.
Article content
City council passed a bylaw in late May giving residents “greater flexibility” in conserving water, including allowing them to fill or top-up swimming pools and water newly planted lawns.
Article content
Article content
Story continues below
Article content
Metro isn’t pleased. Last Friday, the Greater Vancouver water board, made up of politicians from member municipalities, held a special meeting to decide what to do next. It voted to fire off a letter to Mayor Brenda Locke and Surrey city council “asking that they work with their staff to be in alignment with Metro Vancouver’s ongoing water restrictions and response.”
Article content
Sunrise
Article content
Locke wasn’t made available for an interview with Postmedia News.
Article content
David Matsubara, the city’s director of utilities, said the city wants to give its residents some leeway as restrictions come in early.
Article content
“The decision to move to Stage 2 water restrictions did not have a lot of notice,” Matsubara said. “Surrey businesses and residents had to cope with that change, having planned probably the whole summer to work in normal water restrictions. They had to adapt, so Surrey took the opportunity to provide some flexibility within our bylaw to give our residents the opportunity to do home maintenance and some things that require water.”
Article content
The utilities director stopped short of saying the city is simply delaying moving to Stage 3, adding that it will see how things pan out.
Article content
Story continues below
Article content
It’s worth noting that, historically, Surrey isn’t an excessive consumer of water on a per capita basis. In a water consumption report from 2024 — the latest statistics available from Metro — Surrey, at 301 litres per person per day, places well below other major municipalities including Vancouver (379), Richmond (390), Burnaby (373) and North Vancouver (389).
Article content
Read More
-
Surrey police board’s vote to ‘muzzle’ chief draws backlash
-
No pools, no lawn watering: Stage 3 water restrictions start on June 8
-
Advertisement 1
Story continues below
Article content
According to data Matsubara said he received from Metro last week, Surrey’s water usage lingers somewhere in the middle when compared with other municipalities in the region.
Article content
“With what we have in place, we know we’re achieving a pretty good performance, at least for the month of May,” he said. “If we’re staying in the pack, we’re still doing well, we’re keeping our water use down, we don’t see the need to sort of ratchet-up things.”
Article content
Matsubara said the city hasn’t yet received Metro’s letter but is aware it’s coming. Then it will go before council at its next meeting Monday.
Article content
The regional drinking water conservation plan has been in place since the early 1990s. The four-stage system was adopted “to support consistent implementation of restrictions across all member jurisdictions,” a Metro spokesperson explained.
