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Water situation a cause for concern

Town officials in Black Diamond and Turner Valley are considering stronger water restrictions if the local reservoir doesn’t fill up soon.

Town officials in Black Diamond and Turner Valley are considering stronger water restrictions if the local reservoir doesn’t fill up soon.

Turner Valley’s raw water reservoir, which historically fills up each spring, is at 76 per cent capacity going into the summer and the Towns are scrambling to bring the level back up.

“We are concerned,” said Barry Williamson, Turner Valley chief administrative officer. “If we don’t get some more rain here in June it becomes a big issue. We typically want to fill the reservoir before we go into the winter because the river is so low that the wells don’t produce. We count on a lot of the spring run off to fill up the reservoir.”

In early May, the Towns issued level two water restrictions to limit outdoor water use to specific days in hopes the water levels would increase, but Williamson said the reservoir level “lost a little ground” instead.

“Right now we are just drawing enough water from our wells to match the demand where we should be putting some into the reservoir,” he said. “We know the usage gets up this time of the year. We could reduce it by going to restriction level three.”

Williamson said water usage between the towns is holding to the same pattern as two years ago. The Towns are investigating potential distribution leaks before bumping up the water restriction level to three - which doesn’t allow outdoor watering or washing of vehicles and siding.

Williamson said Turner Valley’s main water lines are up to date and are posing no issues, and the Town is currently in the process of replacing about 400 outdated water metres in residential and business areas to prevent potential water loss.

In Black Diamond, crews have been fixing water pipeline leaks, including three in the spring, said chief administrative officer Sharlene Brown.

“Every year we deal with water leaks, like any other community,” she said. “There is a number of them that we are exploring and fixing as we go along. We are trying to get a handle on it.”

Brown said she isn’t sure what is causing the leaks, but assumes it’s old infrastructure and wear and tear as the Town struggles to keep up with the costs of replacing its water pipelines.

“The cost of replacing infrastructure is so expensive,” she said. “We are putting away money for it as things move forward and there is grants available.”

Brown said water use in Black Diamond is historically higher than Turner Valley due to Black Diamond’s larger commercial and public sector base.

Therefore, she encourages residents and business people to be diligent with their water use to prevent the issuing of level three water restrictions, which both communities experienced for about 18 months following the 2013 flood.

“We are doing our part from an infrastructure piece to look at what we can do to reduce the amount of water going through our pipes like fixing leaks, but community needs to be very much aware of what the water restrictions are and what we need to do to be able to conserve the resource,” she said. “It’s just going to take us all to work together to make this happen.”

The Sheep River Regional Utility Corporation, which recently took over administering the communities’ water system, has been seeking more sources of water, said Williamson.

Before the 2013 flood washed out Black Diamond’s water treatment plant and most water sources in both towns, each had three wells supplying the communities with adequate water, said Williamson.

There are currently three wells supplying about 65 per cent of the amount of water previously supplied to the two communities, he said.

“It’s not that we are going to run out of water, it’s if we can satisfy the 20 year growth,” he said. “We could with the previous wells. If we had that we would be able to draw more water to keep up with the demand and fill up the reservoir.”

Williamson said the corporation has been seeking new water sources upstream, but none have been found.

“It means looking in the river to say, ‘Is there a good location for another infiltration gallery or places off the river that could produce enough to meet the demands we want?’” she said. “You need a fairly sizable producing well for what we are looking for.”

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