Cochrane issues local state of emergency
Posted Oct 24, 2023 10:36 am.
Last Updated Oct 25, 2023 8:13 am.
The Town of Cochrane has declared a local state of emergency Tuesday as reservoirs have reached critical levels overnight, the town said Tuesday.
Cochrane’s water reservoirs have reached critical levels. All Cochrane residents and businesses must adhere to emergency mandatory water conservation.
More: https://t.co/8ZeJxPvSo2 pic.twitter.com/e9Pdk1Kaso
— Town of Cochrane (@TownofCochrane) October 24, 2023
“Overnight, our reservoir levels have reached a critical state, which means we do not have the water necessary to action a large fire,” emergency co-ordination centre director, Shawn Polley, said in a video posted to social media. “This is critical.”
In an afternoon press conference Cochrane Mayor Jeff Genung said that despite the issuing of water restrictions Monday, the town saw the single highest use day so far in October.
“We had initially put water restrictions in place and that’s not working, to be frank,” he said.
He urged residents and businesses to follow directions on reducing water consumption.
The Town of Cochrane has declared a State of Local Emergency (SOLE) to create a legal state of affairs of a temporary nature so that the local authority may take extraordinary actions to deal with the emergency.
For updates, visit https://t.co/J4lSGVsSB3https://t.co/oBi5nzVz9Q— Town of Cochrane (@TownofCochrane) October 24, 2023
“All Cochrane residents and businesses must adhere to emergency, mandatory water conservation — do not shower, do not wash dishes, do not run your laundry machines,” Polley said.
“We anticipate that some areas of our community will be without water soon.”
This comes after a water main and sewer line break on Saturday left unspecified amounts of wastewater leaking into the Bow River.
The sewer line has since been bypassed.
Town officials said Tuesday that the break in the line has still not been fixed because crews are unable to isolate the water line, so water out of the reservoir continues to be lost.
Water is being brought in via trucks from the community of Harmony, about 20 kilometres southeast of Cochrane, emergency co-ordination centre director, Polley said.
It’s expected that water from Calgary will be coming to the town as early as Wednesday.
WATCH: Cochrane works to stop sewage flow to Bow River
The town reassured residents that the water remains safe to drink.
Calgary has followed suit, saying no change in quality has been detected at the Bearspaw Treatment Plant.
“Water quality isn’t our problem, water quantity is,” Polley said.
Furthermore, officials say the town’s reserves were at normal levels prior to the incident, but since, ‘a handful’ have dropped to critical levels.
And although water use restrictions are technically voluntary at this point, the town said consequences for dramatic use will be the shut off of water to various communities.
But there won’t be any administrative or monetary fines for non-compliance.
Cochrane officials add they are doing everything to avoid shutting off water, and may consider asking some high-use businesses to restrict even further.
That is already the case at the Spray Lake Saw Mills Centre, which has several pools, as it has been forced to temporarily shut its doors to curb the use of water.
Marketing manager Lisa Hyde tells CityNews she hopes the situation is remedied soon.
“We’re still under the level three restriction that’s been handed out by the town and we don’t have an estimation of when we will be opening, it’s the town that’s asked us to close,” she said.
The town encourages residents and members to stay up-to-date on the situation via cochrane.ca or it’s social media channels.
