Ban announced on non-essential water use

Strathcona County is banning all non-essential water use effective immediately. Residents are advised to use water for essential purposes only. Residents who get water from truck fills are also asked to reduce their water consumption. The ban applies to all Strathcona County residents including country residential areas. 

The ban is required to ensure our water system can support critical activities such as firefighting, drinking and cooking.  

The failure of pumping equipment systems at the EPCOR E.L. Smith Water Treatment Plant has resulted in a full plant outage reducing the available water supply to Edmonton and regional customers. Repair timelines are currently unknown.  

There is no impact to the quality of the drinking water.  

For the duration of the ban, residents are required to discontinue all non-essential water and limit essential water use by: 

• taking short five-minute showers 
• not washing vehicles
• postponing laundry and dish washing 
• not flooding outdoor rinks 
• waiting to fill hot tubs, pools or large aquariums 
• turning off taps while shaving and brushing your teeth 
• flushing toilets only when necessary 

All water conservation measures will help decrease the demand on the County’s water system.  Every drop counts.

Strathcona County has already discontinued the use of potable water for non-essential work such hydrant flushing and vehicle fleet washing.  

If you see someone using a lot of water, you may want to make them aware of the ban or if necessary, call 780-467-7785 to report violations. 

Updates on the water ban will be available on our website at strathcona.ca/waterban and on Facebook (Facebook.com/strathcona.county) and X, formerly twitter (@StrathcoCounty).

Residents are also encouraged to sign up for Strathcona County Alerts (SC Alerts) for notification on water bans and restrictions via www.strathcona.ca/scalerts.   

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Contact: Strathcona County Communications, 780-410-6595