This summer’s abundant rain provided much-needed relief for Diamond Valley’s water supply, but it’s still far from meeting the demand for the community of users.
The raw-water reservoir in Turner Valley is at full capacity after seeing a steady decline during a dry spring, however, the chief executive officer of the Sheep River Regional Water Corporation said the wells supplying Black Diamond, Turner Valley and the surrounding area with water still don’t deliver at the same level as before the 2013 flood.
“Since the flood we’ve only really recovered 65 per cent of the raw-water supply we had pre-flood,” said Barry Williamson, the corporation’s CEO and Turner Valley’s chief administrative officer. “We are still searching for water and we haven’t quite solved that problem. We’ve been turning up some dry results.”
The unusually dry spring prompted town officials in Black Diamond and Turner Valley to issue level two water restrictions in early May to limit outdoor water use to specific days.
In June, the levels in the raw-water reservoir, which historically increase each spring, continued to drop.
When they reached around 70 per cent capacity, town officials were contemplating increasing water use restrictions to level three, which prohibits outdoor water use.
The abundance of rain in July and August filled the reservoir, but Williamson said it’s not enough to bring the water restrictions up to level one, where residents would not be restricted to using water outdoors on specific days.
“We are currently running at level two and until we recover 100 per cent of our regional water supply we should remain at level two,” he said.
“Between the towns, we see ourselves staying on level two until we get that full recovery. It’s not just the reservoir that plays a role in the decision making.
“It’s a strong indicator, but it’s also a case of our availability of raw water period.”
Before the 2013 flood washed out Black Diamond’s water treatment plant and most water sources in both towns, each town had three wells supplying their respective communities with water, said Williamson.
He added that the Sheep River Regional Utility Corporation, which recently took over administering the communities’ water system, has been searching upstream for sites for potential wells to provide adequate water but hasn’t yet found any.
In early summer the river was so low that the existing wells weren’t producing adequate water, he said.
A water conservation bylaw setting three levels for water restrictions was put in place in 2014, after Black Diamond and Turner Valley were both placed at the highest level after the towns were in a state of emergency for several months following the flood, said Williamson.
With Black Diamond’s water treatment plant destroyed in the flood, water was sourced from Turner Valley’s system to meet double the water needs.
“The water conservation bylaw really is about managing the supply between the two towns now that we are on one system,” he said.
Since the bylaw was created, both communities have remained on the same water restrictions as one another.
However, if one community is dealing with a lot of water loss due to such incident as a leak, that community may ramp up its next water conservation to the next level of restriction, said Williamson.
“The technical governance committee with the water corporation has talked about this where one community might have issues with water leaks,” he said.
“Even though it would impact water supply for all three municipalities (Black Diamond, Turner Valley and the MD of Foothills), if one particular municipality is having issues they can declare going to level three without the other municipalities going there.”
In the event the water supply drops to a disconcerting level, Williamson said the other two municipalities would likely follow with the stricter regulation.
Turner Valley Mayor Kelly Tuck agrees that if there is a water issue in one municipality, that municipality should be responsible for looking after the problem and issuing water restrictions on its residents if required.
“I don’t think it’s fair because one community has a water leak the other should be saying to their residents that they have to go right to level three,” she said.
Tuck said she hasn’t heard many concerns from residents about the water situation this summer, expect those few who have been asking about its status.
“The main question that always comes back to me is, ‘Are we at full capacity?’” she said. “That’s the biggest concern.”
Until adequate water sources are found, Tuck said she will remain worried about the water situation but is confident taxpayers will continue to do their due diligence to limit water use.
“I think people understand it’s a commodity,” she said. “The flood taught us a lot of things.”
