Residents of Lantzville will no longer be restricted to watering their gardens twice a week during the warmer months.
At Monday’s council meeting, Lantzville council voted to adopt new regional watering restriction guidelines into its own water conservation plan. Under the new guidelines, Stage 1 restrictions would permit watering and sprinkling of lawns and gardens between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m. and would be in effect between April and October. Stage 2 restrictions will allow for a maximum of two hours for sprinkling between either 7-10 a.m. or 7-10 p.m. Under the Stage 2 restrictions, which would be in effect from May until September, Lantzville would implement an even-odd watering schedule.
Both Stage 1 and 2 allow for watering of vegetable gardens, hand watering, drip irrigation at any time. Meanwhile, Stage 3 calls for voluntary water reduction and Stage 4 would see a total ban on lawn watering.
Coun. Bob Colclough said the new guidelines are an improvement and will benefit those who enjoy gardening and growing their own vegetables.
“There were a lot of improvements,” Colclough said. “Last summer we were on very tight restrictions and one of the things most people complained about was that they could only water on Tuesdays and Thursdays.”
The new region-wide guidelines also mean that water restrictions are defined exactly the same in each water service area, which includes Lantzville, Nanaimo and the Regional District of Nanaimo, and each area will have the ability to raise or lower the water restriction stage for their area as they see fit.
Previously, Lantzville and other water service providers set their own definitions for each watering stage. But after last summer’s dry spell caused some confusion among regional residents, the regional district began working with various water suppliers to construct unified guidelines that would standardized water restrictions in the region.Having regionally unified definitions for each water restriction stage will help eliminate confusion among area residents, according to Colclough.”I believe it is a great approach,” he said.
Lantzville is the first water service area to adopt the new guidelines. The RDN is set to vote on the guidelines tonight (Feb. 23), while the City of Nanaimo is expected to make a decision in March.
