Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek says while indoor water use has returned to normal, city officials aren’t yet ready to lift outdoor restrictions.
“The continued work on stabilizing our water system is going quite well,” Gondek said during Wednesday’s daily update.
The mayor said work to complete critical maintenance on the Glenmore water treatment plant is on track to be finished by the end of the week.
For now though, Stage 4 outdoor water restrictions remain in place, including a fire ban.
Calgary Emergency Management Agency (CEMA) chief Sue Henry reiterated that Calgary is still not in a place to relax outdoor water usage.
“We’re just not there yet,” she said.
“While our system continues to stabilize, we ask you to continue to catch up on your indoor use a little bit at a time.
“We need to keep the whole system stable at this current level of pressure before we can relax to a lesser set of outdoor water restrictions.”
“The last thing we want to do is put the feeder main or the system at risk again,” Gondek added. “We are in recovery mode.”
Francois Bouchart, the director of capital priorities and investment with the city’s infrastructure services department, said Wednesday that treated water remains safe to drink, though turbidity may continue to varying degrees throughout the stabilization period.
“Calgarians may still see cloudy water when they turn on their taps. This is temporary, and the water continues to be safe to consume.”
On Tuesday, Calgary used 478 million litres of water and there was increased usage in the evening, which the mayor said makes sense given the announcement that indoor water restrictions had been lifted.
In the time that water-saving measures were requested by city officials, more than 3.5 billion litres of water were conserved compared to regular water usage, according to the mayor.