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Duck race: Friendly waters. 3
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If city can find a place, B.C. will pay Gov’t will fund temporary homeless shelter By Phil M elnyc h u k pmelnychuk@mapleridgenews.com
The provincial government has some cash to house the homeless in Maple Ridge, Mayor Nicole Read announced Friday. Just how much money that involves, when it will be spent or where a temporary shelter will be located in an effort to disband the Cliff Avenue camp, remains to be seen. Read said the government was ready to help following a Tweet Thursday by Maple Ridge-Mission MLA Marc Dalton saying B.C. Housing will pay for the shelter once the city finds a location. See Shelter, 5
Tim Fitzgerald/THE NEWS
Colourful race Grade 7 students Shayna Neibergall (left) and Hayley Garrett of Kanaka Creek elementary celebrate the end of their school year hand-in-hand as they take part in a colour run on Friday. More than 60 students took part in the event.
Stage 3: No more lawn watering Drought continues as conditions ratchet down B y T i m Fi t z g e r a l d arts@mapleridgenews.com
People are going to have to get used to the idea of seeing their lawns go brown. Metro Vancouver has moving to Stage 3 watering restrictions, meaning residents in Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows will no longer
be able to use a sprinkler to keep their lawns green or their cars clean. It is the first time Metro Vancouver has moved to Stage 3 since 2003. The news comes on the heels of the province’s announcement that the South Coast and the Fraser Valley are in Level 4 drought conditions. According to Metro Vancouver’s website, reservoir levels are at 69 per cent capacity with residents and businesses consuming about 1.6 billion litres of water a day.
Metro Vancouver relies on three reservoir systems to supply the region’s 2.4 million residents with drinking water. The Coquitlam reservoir is supplying residents with almost half of all the water being consumed, while the Capilano and Seymour supply the rest. “Unless we change the amount we’re consuming, that’s a trajectory we just can’t go down,� Metro board chair Greg Moore said. Stage 2 cut daily water consumption from 1.6 billion litres per day
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to about 1.35 billion. But Moore said the region needs to cut it further, to less than 1.2 billion litres a day. That’s more than the 900 million to 1 billion litres used on average in the winter but Moore admits it’s a challenging target in hot, dry summer months. Stage 3 also bans all refilling of hot tubs, pools and garden ponds, among other tighter restrictions on outdoor water use. See Drought, 3
News Files
Watering shrubs and gardens by hand is still OK.
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