Ottawa, Canada -- (SBWIRE) -- 07/14/2014 -- On July 14, all residents of the Cowichan Valley Regional District (CVRD), including Duncan and Lady Smith, were asked to comply with stage 2 water restrictions, due to concerns over low snow pack, low rainfall and a projected dry summer.

According to a June 15 bulletin put out by British Columbia's Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations, "stream flows have dropped to below or well-below normal levels (20-80%) on Vancouver Island, and watersheds are particularly vulnerable to low flows from hot and dry summer weather, because of the low snow packs this year."

In fact, if we understand it correctly, data from the related Snow Survey put out by the Ministry indicates that the snow water equivalent for Wolf River and Jump Creek are at 0% and 1% of their normal.

"That is how I would read that as well although I am not an expert on this. I do know they are already transporting fish to help them get to the spawning grounds." says Sybille Sanderson, CVRD, Public Safety Division in an email to the Water Chronicles.

Although water restrictions are nothing new to British Columbians, stage 2 restrictions are. Watering is only allowed two days a week between certain hours, depending on your address, under stage 2 restrictions.

"It is unusual", says Louise Knodel-Joy, Senior Engineering Technologist, CVRD. "All the local communities decided to team up and issue these precautionary measures because the water levels are particularly low this year"

Over at the city of Duncan, Director of Public Works Abbas Farahbakhsh says "I have been here for six years and we've never gone to stage 2. I've been told that the water levels in Cowichan Lake are at their lowest in years".

The restrictions affect about 14,000 people.

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