Waterloo Region residents asked to conserve water for a week during pipe repair

Residents in Waterloo Region are being asked to conserve water for approximately one week, starting Monday, while an important water pipe is repaired.

The region said it supplies drinking water to approximately 20 per cent of the community.

The pipe will need to be shut off between Aug. 19 and Aug. 25 while the work is completed.

“Rather than to wait and put the community at risk, we're choosing to do the repair now,” said Mari MacNeil, the director of water and wastewater services for the Region of Waterloo.

People living or working in Kitchener, Waterloo, northwest Cambridge, St. Jacobs, Elmira, Breslau, Mannheim, Shingletown, West Montrose, Conestogo and St. Agatha will be impacted. Residents are being asked to reduce all water use as much as possible while the work is ongoing.

A map, provided by the Region of Waterloo, showing the areas impacted by an upcoming water pipe repair scheduled for August 19 to August 25. (Courtesy: Region of Waterloo)“This is critical infrastructure, a large water pipe reaching four feet in diameter in some sections, that delivers drinking water to our community and supplies water for emergency services,” MacNeil said in a news release. “We hope to make repairs quickly without significant impacts to the community.”

Residents are asked to:

• Not water lawns (new sod permits issued by Aug. 16 are exempt)
• Not plant grass seed or lay new sod
• Not wash vehicles
• Not refill pools, hot tubs, garden ponds or fountains
• Not clean or pressure wash exteriors
• Use water cans to water gardens
• Reduce showering time to five minutes or less
• Reduce water use when brushing teeth
• Reduce water use when doing dishes or laundry
• Check for leaks in faucets, showers and toilets

Impact on businesses

Some businesses say it won’t be easy to reduce their water use.

At Benny’s Car Cleaning in Kitchener, they clean around eight to 10 vehicles a day and the water runs from four to 15 minutes for each one.

“If I reduce it, I won’t be able to do my job properly,” said owner Lee-anne Warzecha. “I am fully booked next week.”

The car wash books about a month in advance and unless she reschedules those appointments, there’s not much else she can do. Warzecha said she’s taking a vacation in September and would have moved it up earlier if she knew about the pipe repair.

“A little bit of notice would have been nice. I’ll do my best to reduce if I can, but again, I have to provide the proper quality to the customers,” Warzecha said.

Men In Kilts, an exterior cleaning company, is preparing to make changes next week.

“A service like pressure washing, generally we use about 900 liters of water if we're pressure washing consistently for an hour,” explained Jonathan Shelson, co-owner of Men In Kilts Kitchener-Waterloo and Guelph-Cambridge. “We're a local business, here to support our community. Part of that is adapting to the environment. So we're going to do whatever we can. Maybe instead of using a pressure washer, we'll do some manual side cleaning or we'll reschedule jobs that are using city water if need be.”

The City of Calgary recently initiated major water restrictions while it fixed a watermain. Shelson explained that he learned some tips and tricks from their partners in Cowtown about working with less water.

The region said while its requesting less water use, it knows some businesses require water and it doesn’t want them to do anything that would affect their livelihood.

“We're not looking to ask for those kinds of measures at this time,” MacNeil said.

According to her, the region will be paying close attention to how much water is being used next week. If took much is being taken, stronger restrictions may be introduced.

“We'd have to implement more stringent measures, to ask folks to do more,” MacNeil said. “We may even need to move to enforcement. But we're hoping that the community will do their part.”

She doesn’t, however, expect stronger restrictions will be required.

“The only thing that I think is similar to Calgary is that we are looking to the community to help with water conservation,” she explained. “But what's different is we're doing this ahead of time. It's not reaction reactive. We are looking to supply parts ahead of time to be able to make the repair quickly and get back in terms of supplying water.”