Royal City residents will face earlier water restrictions and stricter enforcement than in past years.
The Greater Vancouver Water District has adjusted the region’s water shortage response plan to activate Stage 1 water restrictions from May 15 to Oct. 15, rather than June 1 to Sept. 30. During Stage 1 of the plan, residential lawn sprinkling is allowed on even-numbered addresses from 4 to 9 a.m. Monday, Wednesday and Saturday and on odd-numbered addresses on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday.
Eugene Wat, the city’s manager of infrastructure planning, said the city heard concerns last year about lack of enforcement of water restrictions and plans to increase enforcement this year.
“We have met with the operational staff, our enforcement staff. We are stepping up the enforcement this year,” he said. “We will also be using some additional staff from the parking services to conduct some of this enforcement work because they’re out in the field most of the time anyways.”
Coun. Mary Trentadue is pleased enforcement won’t be complaint-driven, relying on neighbours to report or complain about people who aren’t following the response plan restrictions.
Coun. Patrick Johnstone said he’d like the city to track the complaints and responses, with that information coming back to council at the end of the water-restriction season. He also suggested the city introduce standard signage available for residents who are exempted from the city’s water shortage response amendment bylaw because they are applying nematodes to their lawns to tackle the chafer beetle.
Wat said the city is looking into the idea of lawn signs, which would provide clarity about homeowners who are able to water their lawns on other days.
Coun. Bill Harper suspects there will be a greater demand for nematodes this year because of last summer’s drought, which will require residents to water their lawns once they are applied.
“The beetle is running wild in the city. On my block it is,” he said. “Because of the dry spell that we had it made it 10 times worse.”
