Cut water consumption by 20%, GRCA urges

The Grand River Conservation Authority is urging people and businesses along the watershed to drop their water usage by 20 per cent.

This week, the low water response team placed the entire watershed at level two. It means the authority is asking all water users — municipalities, aggregate operations, golf courses, water bottlers, farms for irrigation and private users — to decrease the amount of water they use.

The last time a level two was declared for the entire watershed was 2016.

"Conditions are incredibly dry for this time of year and while any rainfall helps, many of the weather systems we have seen this summer have been localized and fall well short of delivering the amount of precipitation needed," Stephanie Shifflett, the GRCA's water resources engineer, said in a release.

"Reducing water use helps ensure there is adequate water supply for drinking water and wastewater treatment."

The GRCA said the recent rainfall had minimal impact on local waterways and total rainfall amounts are well below what's expected in July. 

July 2021 saw 79.9 mm of precipitation, the Environment Canada website shows. In 2016, the last time the watershed was put in a level two for water use, there was 77.8 mm of rain, although 30 mm fell in one day.

So far this month, Waterloo region has seen 8.9 mm of rain.

Reservoirs used to maintain river flows

The GRCA says it's using large reservoirs to maintain flows downstream and that the reservoirs are operating in a normal range, although discharges have been increased to maintain river flows.

"Increased discharge, combined with evaporation due to persistent hot, dry weather will add further pressure to all GRCA reservoirs as water levels decrease," the authority said.

Over the past week, the authority says the reservoirs accounted for approximately 80 per cent of the flow in the Grand River through Kitchener, 45 per cent of the flow through Brantford and about 55 per cent of the Speed River flow through Guelph. 

GRCA says this helps municipalities that get some or all of their drinking water from the Grand River including Waterloo region, Brantford and Six Nations. 

Water from these reservoirs also support the proper operation of about 30 wastewater treatment plants throughout the watershed.

There may be some rain over the weekend, but how much it will help the dry conditions has yet to be seen. Environment Canada says there's a 30 per cent chance of showers on both Friday and Saturday as well as a risk of a thunderstorm. Sunday, showers are in the forecast.