Water restrictions and a boil advisory remain in effect for two Greater Trail communities, but repairs are beginning and expect to ramp up quickly.
Beaver Falls and Montrose are still on Stage 3 water restrictions after a recent break in the water lines destroyed 10,000m3 of property on May 3.
The restrictions prohibit all underground and above ground sprinkling, but there is a group of people that are continually ignoring the water restrictions.
Last week, Montrose Mayor Joe Danchuk urged residents to cut back on water use after 40 per cent of the holding tank was drained in one night. He warned that the Beaver Falls system was trying to cope with the Montrose demand as well as serving its own users.
However, if the demand proved too much, Beaver Falls could withdraw its service to Montrose.
“We are still concerned about water use and have had several reports of residents still watering outside,” said Kevin Chartres, CAO of Montrose. “We haven’t heard from bylaw (officer) yet to hear what she observed or if she gave out any tickets over the weekend.”
The breakage is related to a problem with the welding on the valve, it appears to be a mechanical problem.
“It looks like it broke on one of the welded areas but that’s just a guess,” said Chartres. “It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what happened.”
The Village of Montrose has hired a contractor, and expects to see progress shortly.
“They should be mobilizing equipment (Monday) and starting (Tuesday),” said Chartres. “Pipe work won’t likely start until more towards the end of the week. There will be some earth works and contour shaping for the first few days.”
But the anticipated end date of the project is still unknown. The contractor needs to lay pipe, reshape the properties and backfill the destroyed area,” explained Chartres.
“We’re hopeful that it’s going to be up and running by our Family Fun Day on June 9,” he said.
“If it’s open before then, that would be great. But, it’s hard to give an exact timeline yet so we remain cautiously optimistic.”