Two strikes and you're out: Abbotsford and Mission look to stiffen water restrictions, fines

With more droughts anticipated, Abbotsford and Mission are preparing to stiffen its summer water restrictions—and hand out more fines.

Chilliwack is also taking action—though residents will be on a slightly longer leash.

New problem / old problem

Summer water restrictions are nothing new in Abbotsford and Mission, which jointly operate a water system.

In 2011, Abbotsford’s officials and politicians predicted the city would soon run out of water if it didn’t spend hundreds of millions of dollars to tap into Stave Lake. But voters shot down the controversial plan to partner with a private operator in a referendum, forcing the city to make do with the water sources it already had. Mission’s politicians had already decided against the private-public Stave Lake project. So if the two cities were to get through each summer, residents and businesses would have to scale back their water use.

And they did. Water restrictions combined with an ambitious public education campaign worked: even as the population of the central Fraser Valley has expanded, annual water usage has mostly remained steady. But summers in the Fraser Valley are now have just half the rain as they did 30 years ago, and those climactic changes are expected to test the resilience of the two cities’ water system.

Abbotsford and Mission get most of their water from the mountains north of the Fraser. The system is augmented by a network of wells in Abbotsford. While the city is planning to build more wells to further tap the aquifer and accommodate future growth,that work will take years. And the dry summers are already here.

Last year was one of the driest years on record. Abbotsford and Mission’s water system proved up to the test, with water restrictions limiting usage and just enough spring rain to prevent a crisis.

But now Abbotsford and Mission are looking at further tightening annual restrictions to prepare for future droughts. The new rules would match those already in place to the west, in Langley and the rest of Metro Vancouver.

Each year, the first stage of water restrictions comes into effect on May 1, regardless of snowpack levels and other factors. Additional stages of restrictions are applied when water levels in Dickson Lake north of Mission drop below a certain point. (Last year, the second stage of restrictions was triggered on July 21 as a precaution because of the intense drought, even though lake levels were still at Stage 1 levels.)

In recent years, the first stage of restrictions has limited watering of lawns to two days a week. In the second stage, watering can only be done once a week. In both stages, sprinklers can be used to water flowers, trees, shrubs, and vegetable gardens. (You can see other current restrictions here.)

The proposed new restrictions would cut lawn-watering during the first, automatic stage of restrictions, to one day a week. During Stage 2 restrictions, watering lawns with sprinklers would be banned. (Watering with a hose, by hand, would still be allowed.) The new Stage 1 and Stage 2 restrictions would also limit sprinkler-watering of trees, shrubs and flowers (though not vegetables) to between 5 and 9am each morning. (Watering by hand or with automatic shut-off or drip systems would still be allowed.)

There would be other tweaks, including increased restrictions on golf courses and car washes. Golf courses would also face increased Stage 2 water restrictions, and be banned from watering fairways altogether in Stage 3.

Perhaps most notably, the cities will also issue fewer warnings before starting to fine rule-breakers.

The cities currently take a three-step approach when someone is found to be breaking a water rule. First they get a door hanger advising them they’ve been caught water-handed. If another violation is detected, they get a warning notice. It takes a third strike before a rule-breaker gets fined.

Last year in Abbotsford, 815 doorhangers were handed out and 38 warning letters distributed. No fines were issued at all.

Now city staff have recommended Abbotsford ditch the door-hanger element and skip straight to an educational warning letter. If a second violation is detected, a fine will be issued. Like the changes to the regulations, the two-strikes enforcement process also mimics rules in Metro Vancouver.

Abbotsford staff say stricter enforcement should lead to lower water demand.

Abbotsford council is set to vote on the proposed new restrictions at its council meeting later today. Mission’s council is expected to vote in May on a matching set of changes to its water restrictions.

Chilliwack

The City of Chilliwack also recently tweaked its rules to trigger water restrictions earlier each year.

Chilliwack’s first stage of restrictions will now begin at the start of May, rather than June. But how water can be used during various water restrictions stages isn’t changing.

Under the first stage of restrictions, residents will still be able to water their lawns twice a week in the morning or evenings. During the second stage, lawn sprinklers are allowed once a week during the early morning.

Chilliwack relies on a network of wells that tap the aquifer beneath the city. The aquifer is depleted through the summer, but tends to spring back over the rainy winter and spring. Recent years, though, have seen water levels begin to drop earlier and earlier in the year.