Councillors in Turner Valley weren’t as keen as their Black Diamond counterparts on the Towns’ water use and conservation bylaw revisions. At its Aug. 20 meeting, Turner Valley Town council gave first and second reading to further amendments to the bylaw a month after Black Diamond council approved the revisions. Among the changes was removing examples under a new section that prohibits residents from wasting water, subjecting abusers to a fine. Examples given were letting water run off property onto the street, swales, catch basins and sidewalks. Coun. Jonathan Gordon said Section 4 treats residents unfairly. “Living on a corner on a hill with no sidewalks I try to keep the water on my property but there’s runoff,” he said. “I would like it to say all persons are encouraged to conserve water and no person should allow potable water to run off property as the result of water use. To put it further than that would defeat the purpose of an encouraging bylaw as opposed to a punitive bylaw.” Mayor Gary Rowntree disagreed, saying there needs to be a deterrent to wasting water. “During low river flows, the provincial government will put restrictions on how much we can draw at a given time,” he said. “I have no issues on having fines that are a deterrent.” Rowntree added it should be enforced for those purposely flowing water down the road or running sprinklers for hours. “Because someone may live on a hill or higher elevation and a little bit of water goes on the road I can’t see this being an issue,” he said. “We have to write our bylaws to the lowest denominator, not to the ones that will follow it.” Gerry Melenka, planning and development co-ordinator, said bylaw officers would issue warnings before issuing fines, which range from $100 for a first offence to $800 a third time. “We don’t make a habit to go out and fine people,” he said. “ The last thing we want to do is go in and charge an $800 fine unless the individual is repeating the offence after a number of warnings. “We are not going to be issuing severe fines if there is a little bit of bleed over, but if someone is clearly watering their sidewalk or driveway it should cover that, should it happen.” Coun. Lana Hamilton said the public should be fined for not abiding by Section 4 in an emergency only. “I don’t think we should be fining on level 2 I think we should be warning at level 2, especially for how long we’ve been on level 2,” she said. “These fines seem so steep, I can’t get behind them. I understand them for level 3, but level 2 I think we need to revisit.” Heather Thomson, municipal legislative services, said Section 4 was added in response to complaints the Town receives regarding wasting water. “A lot of complaints come in when you’re on watering restrictions with people watering their lawns and there is a river running down the street,” she said. “We’re hoping that will stop that.” The wording of the section also came under scrutiny by councillors concerned about three circumstances listed, identifying a stream running into a street or swale 30 metres or more from the edge of a property, into a catch basin or into a street or sidewalk. Coun. Cindy Holladay suggested rewording the bylaw to read that no consumer will allow excessive amounts of potable water to run off their property and then allow bylaw to make the judgment rather than defining specific incidents. “If you start defining some circumstances you need to define all,” she said. “You’re not going to be able to define everything and I think you’ll run into more trouble trying to identify a few. We’ll leave it up to the bylaw officer to determine what is excessive in the situation.” Council also changed the bylaw to make the level 1 water conservation section more clear by replacing “outdoor watering” with “outdoor water use.” Some councillors expressed concern that the bylaw allows residents to water their lawns at specific times three days per week, determined by their numbered address. Coun. Lana Hamilton said it doesn’t benefit residents working during watering times or if rain is expected and minimal falls the resident would have to wait two or three days for the next watering time. Coun. Garry Raab agreed, saying it should be changed to allow residents to water any day of the week at specified times. Thomson told council many municipalities implement specific watering days and Rowntree added that it’s the responsible thing to do. “This is a limited resource here,” he said. “We’re a drought climate here. The Sheep River is a smaller river and to have the allocation for watering gardens and lawns on certain days under any level, to me, is only a responsible way a municipality in our situation needs to go.” Third reading of the bylaw will come to council at its Sept. 4 meeting.
