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Brown grass to be expected due to water restrictions

Jul 25, 2016 | 12:00 PM

North Battleford residents may need to get used to less than perfect parks and lawns.

The city in under a “winter water advisory,” basically prohibiting water use on anything non-essential. North Battleford is relying entirely on its water treatment plant which treats well water. The city’s other plant, which treats river water, is closed due to an oil spill in the North Saskatchewan River on Thursday, July 21.

“So far the city supply is keeping up. Due to the efforts that our residents make to help us conserve water, we’re able to have Water Treatment Plant Number One run at optimum and supply the water that is needed so far,” city spokesperson Susanne Abe said. “But we need to keep that up.”

Mandatory restrictions include a ban on watering lawns and gardens, and washing vehicles and buildings. Laundromats and car washes are to remain closed, and the city asked other commercial users to cut back. Normal household water use is still permitted.

“We are sort of a business too and we have to do the same thing. So we shut down the irrigation of the parks,” Abe said adding the city was able to water its flower beds and planters thanks to a supply of water provided by the town of Battleford.

Abe said the city was setting up an information centre to deal with the ongoing water restrictions. In the meantime, she said the status quo will remain for the time being.

“We have no information on how long this is going to last. Our contingency plan so far is to really keep conserving water and to use the treatment plant number one as our main source of water for water consumption,” she said.

The equivalent of two railcars worth of blended crude oil escaped from a Husky pipeline roughly 300 m from the river north of Maidstone. The provincial government said Sunday nearly half the oil had been recovered. The plume reached Prince Albert on Monday.

 

Geoff Smith is battlefordsNOW’s News Director, business and agriculture reporter. He can be reached at gsmith@jpbg.ca or tweet him @smithco.