[All] Fw: GRCA News: Low Water Response Team keeping an eye on conditions following dry spell

[Louisette Lanteigne]

--- On Fri, 4/30/10, Dave Schultz <dschultz at grandriver.ca> wrote:


From: Dave Schultz <dschultz at grandriver.ca>
Subject: GRCA News: Low Water Response Team keeping an eye on conditions following dry spell
To: 
Date: Friday, April 30, 2010, 12:45 PM





 
Grand River Conservation Authority
News Release
 
 
Friday, April 30, 2010
Release ON RECEIPT
 
Low Water Response Team keeping an eye
on conditions following dry spell
The past six months have been among the driest in 70 years in the Grand River watershed and there’s more warm, dry weather in the forecast.
That means water conservation could be especially important this year, says the Grand River Low Water Response Team.
The Low Water Response Team is made up of representatives of municipalities, water users, Six Nations, the Grand River Conservation Authority and the provincial agriculture, municipal affairs, environment and natural resources ministries. It implements the Ontario Low Water Response Plan in the Grand River watershed.
Members met in a teleconference this week to review reports on watershed conditions.
If the dry weather continues, the committee could call for voluntary water conservation measures. Generally, those measures can be met if people comply with their municipal outdoor water use bylaws governing lawn watering, car washing and other activities. In some municipalities those measures are in effect year-round, while in others they come into effect in May.
The Low Water Response Team will meet as required to assess conditions.
Information from GRCA climate stations shows that precipitation has been only three-quarters of normal in the six months since November. Only four other years have been that dry since data collection stated in 1940.
The warm, dry, windy weather has encouraged evaporation and left many farm fields dry. Some farmers have already started to irrigate in order to plant crops, since there isn’t enough moisture in the soil to promote growth.
The Grand River and its tributaries have already dropped to summer low flow levels.
The GRCA is using water stored in its seven major reservoirs to augment flows on the Conestogo, Speed and Grand Rivers as well as the Canagagigue Creek in Elmira, Mill Creek in Cambridge and Laurel Creek in Waterloo.
The GRCA uses the reservoirs to maintain minimum flows at key locations critical to the operation of municipal water treatment and sewage treatment plants. Waterloo Region, Guelph, Brantford and Six Nations get some or all of their water from the Grand and its tributaries. There are also 28 municipal sewage treatment plants putting treated effluent into the Grand and its tributaries.
There’s enough water available in the reservoirs to maintain flows throughout a dry summer, but GRCA dam operations staff are limiting discharges to conserve water should the dry weather extend into the fall and winter. More water will be taken into storage when there’s rain.
A survey of monitoring wells show that groundwater levels are still average but are moving downward. Some wells that normally rise in the winter have remained steady or have fallen.
More information on the Low Water Response Program is available on the GRCA website at www.grandriver.ca The “Low Water Response” section contains information on current conditions and how the program operations as well as tips on water conservation. Information on river flows and rainfall can be found in the “River Data” section of the website.
 
-30-
 
Further information: Dave Schultz, GRCA Manager of Communications
Phone: (519) 621-2763, Ext. 2273; Cell: (519) 658-3896
E-mail: dschultz at grandriver.ca Website: www.grandriver.ca
 
 
 
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