So far, Bylaw Services has done little other that give some warnings!

Perhaps Bylaw Services could show that the City is serious about the watering ban? A good start would be to issue the City a ticket, haha!

Hmmm, might not be a good idea as the City might raise taxes to pay for the ticket!

Stay cool PG!

Oh, I got to use that oops on them…. Dang, I’m not rich enough for an automatic sprinkler.

I guess they do not want to share how well this is working out. They should have monitoring systems which tell them how full the reservoirs are and whether they are being drawn down further or refilling.

It must have been really bad if they did a virtual full-time ban other than monitored watering. They could just as easily have discontinued watering on even address days and odd address days and implemented watering on every second even address days and every second odd address days.

Since there are no water meters for most, we cannot regulate by price. Does the City have any idea what our water usage per household is compared to other cities?

Also, what capacity is our system designed for compared to other BC cities?

So what are the fines, is it still $50

If there is not enough water to fight an unexpected number of fires which might happen when it is hot and dry for a long period, fines do not help.

Can’t fight fires with fines.

Gopg.. How do you know they don’t monitor the levels? They must, if they didn’t how would they know they are low?

As for your every second watering day.. Why .. If they need water for other things rather than making your lawn look green then stop watering your lawn.. It’s actually much better for the environment to not water your lawn.. Less pollution getting into the sewer system..less emissions from lawn mowers etc..

As for they city not shutting everything off immediately so what,, if everyone thought it would happen all at once you don’t have a grasp of reality..everything takes time.. If it was 4-5 days and stuff was still being watered by the city I would have a concern. But a day or two after the ban was implemented is nothing,..but people love to make something out of it.

With something like soccer fields, the question becomes how long can they go without water or minimal water before the sod gets damaged to the extent that it will cost staff time to bring it back to standard.

That sort of information should be put into a decision model of what the optimum size of water storage and distribution system should be for such scenarios.

They have no problems putting on the restriction, and publicizing the restriction. but they don’t publicize that the restriction is off.

“How do you know they don’t monitor the levels”

I did not say they did not. I also did not say they did.

There are monitoring systems, and then there are monitoring systems.

A good system would generate such information as continuous rates of change in volume stored, maintenance scheduled downtime for pumps, pump breakdowns, weather data including forecasts, risk levels for such things as small local brushfires. Etc.

With information collected they can be entered into a predictive model which includes a number of mitigating actions which can be taken.

I just happen to believe that the actions taken are not as gradual as they could have. It seems to me something went wrong. It could be as simple that monitors did not report accurately, that warning alarms did not go off, that someone did not check up in a timely fashion.

Then again, it could be that their controls are not fed into a predictive monitoring system with graduated response options. In other words, they have a system from the 20th century, not the 21st century.

I just think that there is more to this than meets the eye. The fact that sprinklers at the soccer fields went on when they should not have certainly is a good indicator of the quality of system or human oversight which they have.

As far as watering grass, I posted about my philosophy of that somewhere else. Our grass is the same as the grass in the park behind the house. Both are relatively green without watering.

I just came back from the south where it is hotter and drier and everything is burnt to a crisp. After a couple of weeks of no watering – I left my lawn uncut – the lawn was greener than most of my neighbours who watered. I cut it back to about 4”, and it looks like it was watered regularly.

IN other communities there are a significant number of people who landscape their yards, both front and back, with shrubs and low plants which can survive with very little water. I see very little of that in PG.

It is amazing how little we know about how the City works. Then when some of us who are interested want to find out, it is amazing how little information is available to us.

Like little Johnny and Mary in school, we are just told what to do and don’t ask questions.

Thursday, July 9, 2015 @ 11:19 AM P Val said in part, “It’s actually much better for the environment to not water your lawn. Less pollution getting into the sewer system.”
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Huh….

If you make the smokers go outside your home to light up you might want to make sure they don’t throw their butts (cigarette) on the dry grass.

The City has a Water Conservation Plan on its web site. It was written in 2005. It defines the goal to reduce residential water by 20% and overall water consumption by 15% in the next 10 years relative to the 2014 water consumption levels.

It is time we are told how we are doing with that goal.

One initiative designed to meet the reduction goal I am particularly interested in is the “continue developing a leak detection program”. That is hardly a serious goal over a 10 year period. How long does development of such a tool take? 10 years should be enough time to put the pressure monitoring valves in.

The other is “develop water efficient landscaping”. After 10 years a significant amount of that should be visible in City parks and boulevards. Where is it?

Furtree… Do you know how much pesticide and fertilizer enters our sewers from people’s lawn applications of this stuff?

Ah water . Another of those wonderful things that once in place ,our rooves provide free of charge . All you need is a bucket as big as you can afford . When I was a kid a house without one was an oddity .

“develop water efficient landscaping”. = dandelions.

Of course the City has level transmitters on all its tanks! Relax. The pumps start automatically when the level is below the setpoint and they stop when the maximum desired level is reached. They also stop automatically when the PLC inputs detect a faulty parameter. It is called fail safe programming.

Because the water ban isn’t saving enough the city has come up with a new rule. If its yellow let it mellow. If its brown flush it down.

Lol F-150 they would probably have potty patrol officers too

PVal don’t think much pesticide and fertilizer can get in the sewer from over watering, maybe into the storm drains which pipe out directly into the river…

“The City has banned the use of all mechanical sprinkling systems because of low water levels.” The reason given by a City spokesperson yesterday was not that levels were low but that pumps were running at full capacity.

Thursday, July 9/15 12:15 PM — P Val asked,

Furtree… Do you know how much pesticide and fertilizer enters our sewers from people’s lawn applications of this stuff?
…………………
I do not know . So help me out, how much is there?

“Do you know how much pesticide and fertilizer enters our sewers from people’s lawn applications of this stuff”

Who cares what enters the storm sewers. We should care what enters the rivers, lakes and oceans.

So, who is ready to make the comparison of what enters the natural bodies of water from farms in the Fraser Valley with high intensity farming activities say per 1,000 acres and what enters from the urbanized part of PG and similar cities per 1,000 acres.

I suspect fertilizer entering the Fraser from urbanization around here is the least of our worries compared to farms in the Fraser Valley.

We have to pay for water out here, so I never water my lawn. I do try and remove dandelions though and I dont let it go much shorter than about 2-3 inches. it stays green and I have to mow it regularly. The only water it gets is from rain. If we do go through a hot spell and it stops growing, it just takes one or two good rains and it’s right back to being lush.

You guys should just be glad you don’t have grubs, skunks and raccoons. You go to bed one night and your lawn looks great and you wake up the next morning and it looks like someone did burn outs in your lawn with a quad, LOL.

From BC Environmental Protection Division come these words:
“Agricultural operations, if not properly managed, can discharge a wide range of contaminants, including those from manure, fertilizers, pesticides, and eroded soil particles. The most worrisome contaminants are ammonia, nutrients, pathogens, and sediments. Ammonia is toxic to fish, while nutrients can impair water quality, as in the Serpentine and Nikomekl rivers and the Abbotsford aquifer. Manure is a significant source of nitrogen, phosphorus, biochemical oxygen demand, and waterborne diseases. Proper management is required to avoid adverse effects to water supplies and human health.

“Environmentally sound use of manure from farms is a constant challenge in the agricultural industry, and is not unique to British Columbia. In some parts of the Fraser Valley, nutrients from manure, combined with inorganic fertilizer use, exceed the capacity of local lands to assimilate the available nutrients. In some areas, the excess is between 300 and 400 kilograms of nitrogen per cropped hectare. When too much manure and chemical fertilizer are spread onto fields for crop enhancement, excess nitrogen leaches into ground water or enters adjacent streams.”

NMG we do have skunks here, if our weather keeps changing racoons will be a distinct possibility. I remember when I lived in the eastern States what a pain racoons were (are). Definitely not the Disney image I was misled with from childhood (as with pretty much all wildlife).

Thursday, July 9/15 3:06 PM gopg2015 said, Who cares what enters the storm sewers. We should care what enters the rivers, lakes and oceans.
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Surely you must realize that what goes into the storm sewers and effluent sewers all eventually end up in rivers ,oceans, and to some degree lakes.

Wow, gopg2015 AKA Gus is really on a roll on this discussion thread topic. The researched comments in particular have that Gus aura about them, also the number of comments being posted by gopg2015 are getting near Gus proportions.

As for this water ban, I say no big deal, and it’s something we had better get used to as more frequent, and longer, heatwaves come in the future.

Interesting detoe44. I can honestly say that I never saw or smelled a skunk growing up or living in PG. If the weather keeps warning up out there, I’ll send some wild turkeys your way. I came upon a flock of them on a trail the year I first moved out here and didn’t know what the heck I was encountering. They were a wee bit larger than a grouse, LOL.

What’s flying over all of your heads is the grounds maintenance at the soccer fields is the responsibility of the PGYSA not the City.

Whats flying over your head ? Volunteers from PGYSA mark the lines but its the citys equipment I see mowing the grass and working on the irrigation.

I thought it was more about water volume and pressure available in the event of a fire call not actual reservoir levels… seems we all get something a little different out of the news

NMG, I’ve heard that turkey’s are a wee bit more aggressive than grouse as well. Skunks here keep a low profile, lady at Otway last year had her dog sprayed. The ride home in her van must have been…well, not pleasant.

“Wow, gopg2015 AKA Gus is really on a roll on this discussion thread topic”

And Sophic Sage has a definite “peeps” feel to the comments

Ha Ha, yeah, they can have a little bit of an attitude at times, especially if they feel threatened. A big one would probably be 15-20 pounds, which doesn’t sound like much, but their head is at a very worrisome pecking height, LOL!

Maintenance is a paid position at the soccer fields, not volunteer. The city is responsible for mowing, sodding and irrigation. Buildings and lights and extra maintenance is the responsibility of the user and at their expense.