Here’s how the new water conservation bylaw amendments will affect your lawn watering

The Capital Regional District (CRD) has approved an amendment to the water conservation bylaw which impacts the entire Greater Victoria region. 

According to the CRD, the high and instantaneous demand for water at 4 a.m., 5 a.m. and 6 a.m. has gotten out of hand on residential watering days.

This could be from many people starting their sprinklers to water their gardens at the same time, as dictated by the CRD’s current rules. 

“These demands impact the drinking water system’s ability to maintain adequate flow, pressure, and highwater quality standards,” said the CRD in a media release.  

“To reduce peak demand during summer morning periods, the Bylaw has been amended with a new overnight lawn watering schedule for timed irrigation systems and changes to the watering day for public, institutional, and community playing fields.”

The CRD says that specifically they would like people to avoid having their watering system start at exactly 4 a.m., 5 a.m. and 6 a.m. to mitigate the issue. 

So, the new allowable watering time for timed/automatic irrigation is anytime from 12:01 a.m. to 10 a.m. on the established watering days.

Additionally, the new watering time for municipalities to water public, institutional or community playing fields is any day other than Wednesday. This has been decided in an effort to eliminate overlap with residential lawn watering days where the largest peak demands are seen.

“We continue to have ample water supply to meet the needs of the communities that are supplied drinking water by the Regional Water Service”, said Gord Baird, Regional Water Supply Commission Chair. 

“Adding an overnight watering window under the Bylaw and encouraging landowners and

residents to switch timed irrigation systems to this new expanded window will help to better manage peak morning flows, reduce the possibility of turbidity events, and help alleviate impacts related to high demand due to heat events.”

The new bylaw amendments will come into effect on May 1st.