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Editorial: Remaining water wise

Recent rainy weather aside, by all appearances we are in for worse drought conditions next summer

So it’s been raining buckets lately and it looks as though the water conservation restrictions currently in effect in the Lower Mainland might be loosened.

Even if they aren’t, it likely means at least a temporary end to brown lawns, brittle trees and out-of-control forest fires.

But does it mean a return to unattended sprinklers soaking already-damp lawns, 90-minute showers and power-washing marathons? Probably not, because next spring and summer could be even worse.

Long-range forecasts suggest we will have an unusually warm and dry winter,  followed by another unusually hot summer. That means another drought, this time with even less water on the mountains and less rain in the sky to supply a thirsty Metro Vancouver.

It also means less water soaking into the ground to replenish the groundwater that feeds the many wells in Langley.

People who use well water are exempt from the mandatory water restrictions imposed on people who get their H20 from municipal pipelines, but when the municipality announced limits on consumption, it noted the municipality draws on well water as well as the Metro system and included a plea to “all property owners to be good environmental stewards and follow the water use restrictions.”

They really should.

Consider the cautionary tale of the Gulf Islands during this year’s epic drought.

After two-and-a-half months of extreme heat and low rainfall, some island wells bottomed out, forcing people to bring water in from Vancouver Island by truck, paying hundreds of dollars for each tanker load.

Some have installed storage tanks holding thousands of litres.

While Langley is far less likely to exhaust its groundwater supply, the amount of water in the ground is not infinite, either.

We don’t know exactly how much hot, dry weather it would take before wells begin to dry up, and rather than find out, we suggest it would be easier to simply follow the same restrictions everyone else does.