With a severe summer drought looming, an education campaign about reducing water usage will be launched this spring by the City of Red Deer.
The city will use social media, as well as utility bill inserts, billboards, radio and newspaper ads to encourage people to find ways to use less water, said water superintendent Alex Monkman.
At the behest of the provincial government, the City of Red Deer has already been collaborating with other municipalities and industries in southern and central Alberta to reduce overall draws on the Red Deer River and South Saskatchewan river system.
Monkman expects the province will release the target for overall water use reduction by mid-April.
“We already have water restriction guidelines on our website,” he added, so residents can voluntarily act on some of these.
If official water restrictions eventually need to be applied and enforced by the municipality, fines of up to $2,500 can be levied for breaking water usage rules.
But Monkman prefers to go the education route.
He said on May 1, the city will bring in voluntary water reduction guidelines and encourages Red Deerians to check out what they can do to bring down their own water consumption.
Tips are provided on the city’s website, such as watering lawns in the evening when there’s no direct sun and less evaporation. And instead of watering the grass or gardens for an hour straight, it’s better to water for three 10-minute periods within the hour, said Monkman. This allows water time to soak into the soil, instead of running off it.
While the most dire drought is expected to hit the irrigation country of Southern Alberta, the Red Deer River is included in the province’s area of concern. The Gleniffer Reservoir had been running lower than usual, and El Nino conditions could create below average snowfall in the mountains. This would mean less snow melt in the spring to feed into the Red Deer River system.
Earlier this winter, scientists warned about falling groundwater levels in Alberta, due to climate change.
Monkman said much will depend on how much precipitation falls in June, which is usually the rainiest month for central Alberta.
It’s been many years since the city has had to enforce water conservation methods, such as odd and even lawn watering days or reduced hours for watering gardens. Voluntary effort are usually encouraged.
The city’s website shows four stages of minimizing potable water use — from stage one, where guidelines are voluntary, to stage 2 where they are enforced, to stage 3 and 4 when non-essential uses are curtailed or entirely stopped.
Monkman previously stated the City of Red Deer generally only uses about 40 per cent of its water licence.