With sweltering heat and little rain in sight, Montrealers should consider how they’re using the city’s drinking water supply, says city councillor Maja Vodanovic, who handles the water file at the executive committee.
Watering your garden at night or refraining from hosing down your car are some of the ways people can help ease some of the demand from the city’s water treatment plants.
“We don’t have a shortage of water, but it could happen if there’s no rain for a really long period of time that we have problems in certain spots,” she said.
Montreal is one of several Canadian cities experiencing “excessive heat” Monday, says Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) senior climatologist David Phillips.
Temperatures in the city are expected to reach 34 C until Tuesday, though the humidity, exacerbated by a high pressure system, will make it feel like 40, according to ECCC.
“It is this Bermuda High, it’s a large ridge that is sitting like a lid over top of … eastern Canada and it is absolutely not letting any circulation in, it’s why we’re seeing such drought conditions,” said Phillips.
In the St. Lawrence River, the heat and low precipitation rate has brought the water level down to it’s lowest in four years. On Sunday morning, the water level in eastern Montreal was 4.1 metres — 60 centimetres below the median.
Vodanovic calls the dip concerning because it makes treating the water more expensive and chemical-intensive.
“Less water means less dilution, so everything that is industrial discharge, sewer discharge, will of course be more concentrated in the raw water that we take into our plant and [make] the treatments more arduous,” she said.
They also use chemical products to neutralize the taste of algae which can be stronger when the water level is low, she says.
Low water level on the St. Lawrence also stalls traffic on the seaway, adds Vodanovic. Cargo ships cannot maximize their load if they risk dragging on the seabed.
“So, there’s less commercial exchange with Ontario, with the United States, so there’s an economic cost that’s very significant for the country she said.
Vodanovic says she’ll be hoping for rain soon, and in the meantime: let your patch of grass go yellow.
“It’s OK…grass doesn’t die even if it’s yellow,” she said.
