[All] Fw: GRCA News: Water conservation urged throughout Grand river watershed

Wed Jun 3 23:27:09 EDT 2015

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  From: Dave Schultz <dschultz at grandriver.ca>
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 Sent: Wednesday, June 3, 2015 2:34 PM
 Subject: GRCA News: Water conservation urged throughout Grand river watershed

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Grand River Conservation Authority

GRCA NEWS

Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Release on receipt

Water conservation urged
throughout Grand River watershed
 Water users throughout the Grand River watershed are being asked to cut their consumption by 10 per cent because of the unusually dry weather this year. Even with the heavy rain that fell last weekend, most of the Grand River watershed has received only two-thirds of the normal precipitation over the last three months. The call for the reduction came from the Grand River Low Water Response Team which met in a conference call on Wednesday. The team is made up of representatives of major water users including municipalities, farmers, golf course operators, water bottlers, aggregate businesses, Six Nations and others. The Low Water Response Team decided to place the entire watershed at Level 1 under the Ontario Low Water Response plan. Level 1 results in a request for a voluntary 10 per cent reduction in water consumption by holders of Permits to Take Water. There are about 750 permits in the watershed issued to those taking more than 50,000 litres of water a day from a river, stream or well. The permit holders include municipalities, aggregate operations, golf course, water bottlers and farms for irrigation. Prior to the weekend, much of the watershed had received one-tenth of the normal rainfall during May. Rivers and creeks were running at levels normally seen in July and August. Groundwater levels have not rebounded as much as they usually do this spring. A lot of the winter snow evaporated instead of melting and soaking into the ground. Low groundwater levels could result in lower flows later in the year in rivers and creeks that are fed by springs, seeps and other groundwater discharge. Some farms had already started irrigating prior to the weekend rain, particularly in Brant and Oxford counties. Farm irrigation is heavy near Whitemans and Horner creeks where a lot of fruit, vegetables, tobacco and ginseng are grown on sandy soil. For most residents, the most effective thing they can do is to follow their municipal outdoor water use bylaws, which limit watering to alternate days or once a week. Lawn watering restrictions are already in place in Waterloo Region, Guelph, Brantford, Brant County and Oxford County.  The GRCA has been augmenting the flow in the Grand, Conestogo and Speed rivers with water stored in its reservoir network. The GRCA managed to store enough water from the spring melt and April rains to continue to augment flows throughout the summer. That helps municipalities that get all or some of their drinking water from the Grand River including Waterloo Region, Brantford and Six Nations. It also supports the proper operation of about 30 sewage treatment plants that put their treated effluent into the Grand and its tributaries. More information on the Low Water Response Program is available on the GRCA website at www.grandriver.ca  
-30-

Further information:
 Dave Schultz, GRCA Manager of Communications Phone 519-621-2763 x2273 |  Cell 519-658-3896  |  Emaildschultz at grandriver.ca  |  Webwww.grandriver.ca    ·         If this message has been forwarded to you and you would like to subscribe to the GRCA News Service, please send a blank email to GRCAnews-subscribe at grandriver.ca. ·         If you would like to unsubscribe, please send a blank email to GRCAnews-unsubscribe at grandriver.ca. ·         Note that you must unsubscribe from the same email address that you used to subscribe. ·         More details are available in the Newsroom at: http://www.grandriver.ca/Newsroom/News.cfm?id=376 

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