The recent heavy rains have restored Metro Vancouver’s reservoirs to acceptable water levels, and therefore the region will return to the second stage of water use restrictions from the third stage, which has been in place since July 20.“Metro Vancouver staff have continuously monitored the water levels in our three reservoirs as well as our daily water consumption, and now that the reservoirs are within the seasonal average, we can return to Stage Two water restrictions,” said Carol Mason, Commissioner of the Greater Vancouver Water District and Metro Vancouver’s Chief Administrative Officer.“Implementing the third stage of restrictions was a difficult but necessary decision given the low snowpack combined with hot, dry weather in July and August, forecast to continue into the fall,” she added. “We are returning to the Stage Two restrictions until further notice, because of the combination of much-needed rain and reduced daily demand for water.”The Capilano, Seymour and Coquitlam reservoirs are currently at 60 per cent of their storage capacity. Metro Vancouver’s three alpine lakes, which provide water to the reservoirs in the summer, have also been replenished by the recent rains.“Collectively, we did a tremendous job conserving water during months of dry, hot weather,” said Greg Moore, Chair of the Metro Vancouver Board of Directors. “Due to the extraordinary conservation efforts of the citizens of Metro Vancouver, we did not exceed the 1.2 billion-litres-a-day target for water use shortly after implementing the Stage 3 restrictions.”“With the reservoirs holding at 60 percent for the past week, we now have an adequate supply of water and I want to acknowledge in particular the significant support from the business community,” he added.Metro Vancouver will continue to monitor daily the reservoir levels and our water consumption, to determine if usage and supply have stabilized. Once we have established that usage is within the normal range of consumption and reservoirs are remaining within normal levels, we will have the opportunity to further relax our water use restrictions.“Thanks to conservation programs like the lawn sprinkling regulations, there has been a 27-per-cent decline in per-capita water use in our region since 1993,” said Darrell Mussatto, Chair of the Metro Vancouver Utilities Committee. “With the reservoirs at the low end of the seasonal average and given the forecast, we should all be mindful that conservation remains a high priority and we should continue to use our water wisely.”Metro Vancouver will be considering input from residents, businesses, and our member municipalities in evaluating the Water Shortage Response Plan commencing this fall to mitigate impacts in the future.Metro Vancouver’s Water District has been successfully managing the region’s water infrastructure since 1924, ensuring an adequate supply of high-quality drinking water throughout the region. While Metro Vancouver establishes the annual water use restrictions, our member municipalities enforce them.Background:During the drought from May to the end of August, the day with the highest water consumption was July 2 when 1.70 billion litres were used throughout the region. The highest peak-day consumption previously was July 16, 2014 when 1.58 billion litres were used.Due to an extremely low snowpack combined with hot, dry weather from May to the end of August, Stage 2 restrictions came into effect on July 3. Two weeks later, on July 20, Stage 3 restrictions were enacted.Stage Two Restrictions:Private and commercial washing of driveways, sidewalks, and parkades as well as pressure washing are allowed for health and safety purposes. Aesthetic purposes are not allowed. Sports and sand-based playing fields may only use the minimum level of water needed to keep them in usable conditions.Lawn sprinkling is permitted once per week in the morning but prohibited during evening hours when demand is highest for domestic uses like dishwashing, laundry and showers. Water use is also prohibited for public and commercial fountains and water features.For residences, even-numbered addresses may water their lawn between 4-9 am on Monday, and odd-numbered addresses may water between 4-9 am on Thursday.For non-residential property, even-numbered addresses may sprinkle lawns between 1-6 am on Wednesday, and odd-numbered addresses may water lawns between 1-6 am on Tuesday.Municipal parks must also follow the once-weekly lawn sprinkling times.Unless authorized by a municipality, only water play parks with user-activated switches can be operated.