Outside watering now prohibited — except by hand

By David F. Rooney

Effective immediately, all outside watering of lawns and gardens by sprinklers is prohibited, says Darren Komonoski, operations manager of the City’s Engineering and Public Works Department.

“Irrigation demands are so high we’re getting fluctuations and cannot maintain our mandatory fire flows,” he said Friday morning.

Komonoski said the City is working with consultants from Dayton & Knight, a North Vancouver firm of engineers that provides expert consulting services to cities and towns, to increase water pressure at Greeley Creek using existing piping.

“Unless we curtail usage the City will have a huge liability risk,” he said.

The City has two main water reservoirs.

“The Trans Canada tank has 1 million gallons — that’s about 30 feet deep and it can’t go below 25 feet,” Komonoski said. “That only gives us about two hours of firefighting capability.”

The Arrow Heights tank has just about 600,000 gallons.