Queens regional councillors are looking for ways to help prevent more water crises in the region. (Henryk Niestroj via Pixabay)

While residents and businesses in the Liverpool area are being asked to cut back on water, Region of Queens councillors want to find ways to improve communication and deal with any future water shortages.

Last week, councillors asked for a comprehensive staff report on the region’s water and wastewater systems. They also want staff to develop a communication system to inform customers quickly when problems arise.

Municipal water users in Liverpool and parts of Brooklyn have been asked since Nov. 1 to restrict their water usage. 

Water levels in the Town Lake Reservoir are too low to support the town’s usual consumption. 

The region has warned people that without significant amounts of rain, more drastic measures may have to be taken.

Mayor Scott Christian said it’s important to investigate longer-term solutions.

“It has appropriately alarmed a lot of our residents and a number of members of council as well,” Christian said.

“So I think it’s appropriate that we ask those questions in terms of how are we going to avoid situations like this in the future. What’s our Plan B? How can we make sure that we do all we can to protect against known or foreseeable risks to the stability or the dependence of our water supply?” 

Other councillors said they were also worried how the water supply could be affected if the Liverpool Fire Department needs to respond to a fire.

Liverpool fire chief Trevor Munroe could not be reached for comment Monday.

District 3 Coun. Courtney Wentzell said the region needs to address problems with its existing infrastructure.

“I think we’ve got an infrastructure problem on the west side of Liverpool from the town well to Union Street. This is very, very serious. We need to know what Plan B is, we need to look ahead and we need to look after people that already hooked up before we start hooking up new.”

The region has been criticized in the past for its efforts at spreading the word about water problems.

In summer 2023, the region imposed a boil-water order on municipal users. 

But some businesses and residents complained that they didn’t know about it until days after the order was issued. 

People were also upset at what they saw as a lack of transparency about the reasons for the order.

Deputy Mayor Maddie Charlton said residents and businesses need to be informed more quickly and more directly.

“I’m also running into a lot of residents who are unaware that they’re supposed to decrease their water usage right now, so I think that this is critical that this happen so that residents can be alerted when needed in a very quick manner.”

CAO Cody Joudry could not give councillors a timeline for when staff will complete their report.

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com

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The Region of Queens has issued warnings about low water levels in the town reservoir. (Ed Halverson photo)

The Region of Queens is asking residents and businesses in Liverpool and Brooklyn to restrict their water usage.

Officials issued a third voluntary water conservation order late Wednesday. They first warned people about the water levels on Nov. 1.

The region says its 1,400 water utility customers must use less water because the municipality’s Town Lake reservoir is getting dangerously low.

Queens CAO Cody Joudry said Thursday that he hopes residents and businesses co-operate.

“I wouldn’t call it at a critical level, however it’s been heading that way for a while,” he said.

“It is continuing to go down at this point. It’s definitely getting worse so that’s why we really want to talk to the public and encourage them to actively try to conserve water.”

Mayor Scott Christian was not available for an interview Thursday. But he did post this video on his Facebook page Thursday afternoon appealing to municipal water users to cut their consumption.

Queens County has had very little rain this fall. According to Environment Canada, the area had only 30.1 millimetres of precipitation in October. So far, only 4.1 mm has fallen in November. 

Joudry says the area needs to get at least 50 mm a week to replenish the reservoir to comfortable levels.

In their latest update, the municipality says if the situation worsens, they may have to begin mandatory conservation measures. Failure to follow those could result in fines and having your water cut off.

“Overall we’re not seeing a lot of decreased usage,” he said. “Those that are conserving water, we appreciate it. And those that aren’t, we are asking them to take it seriously and take immediate action … that people actively and consciously and deliberately take steps immediately to use less water than they were last week, than they were the week before that and the week before that. … We don’t want it to be dire.”

Joudry says the region has had worse water levels in the past. The reservoir isn’t yet at the low levels experienced in 1992, 1994 or 2001.

“When we get down to those levels, we’re implementing mandatory water conservation. And if people aren’t adhering to those rules, there could be tickets or disconnections and we don’t’ want to get to that point.”

Joudry said it’s difficult to say how close the region is to enacting more severe measures. But he said if things don’t improve in the next two to three weeks, it may come to that.

“I remain hopeful that usage goes down and rain occurs. Maybe more than one day of hard rain would be great.”

Joudry said he has reached out to the region’s Top 10 largest water consumers to explain the situation and ask them to start conserving water immediately.

“I don’t want to put all the weight or the onus on them. Everyone needs to do their fair share.”

The region did not do a baseline measurement of individual water usage when they first identified the problem about three weeks ago. But Joudry said officials are discussing ways to judge whether specific residents and businesses are using less water.

And he said they don’t plan yet to contact users directly. He said he hopes the municipality’s updates on social media and on radio will get the message across.

“I’m not sure at this point what we can do at this point, other than a door knocking campaign. It may come to that. For example, if we get to mandatory conservation measures, there might be letters that go out and door knocking.”

Joudry said he understands that conservation efforts will be different for everybody, depending on what their needs are.

Some of the things you can do to reduce your water usage include: reduce the frequency of flushing toilets; do fewer loads of dishes and laundry; stop washing vehicles; take shorter showers; turn off taps when not in use while showering or brushing your teeth; and fix any leaks or dripping faucets.

And if you have a suspected leak in your water line, contact the municipality at 902-354-7170. 

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com

Listen to the audio version of this story below

QCCR acknowledges the support of the Community Radio Fund of Canada’s Local Journalism Initiative.