By NanaimoNewsNOW Staff

UPDATE: Nanaimo’s water treatment plant back to full capacity, restrictions ended

Dec 21, 2018 | 7:18 AM

NANAIMO — UPDATE (5 p.m. Saturday) The city says the water treatment plant is now at full capacity once more after being online for nearly a day.

This means all residents and businesses can return to using water as normal.

After asking for strict water conservation on Friday and Saturday, the City said water consumption was reduced by 50 per cent. 

troubleshooting continues. Residents and businesses are asked to be mindful of water use. While the City is asking for conservation, limited household use is okay. The situation is less severe than it was yesterday.

City pools will re-open at 5 p.m. Saturday. Arenas will open up with reduced ice cleaning.

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EARLIER:

The City says the water treatment plant lis operational after being out-of-commission for more than 12 hours. It lost power around 4 a.m. on Friday and then the backup generator and multiple systems suffered failures.

Though the plant is running, it’s not at capacity after being down all day. 

The City is continuing to ask residents to conserve as much water as possible, which means no laundry or showers or unnecessary use.

The water is still safe to drink but supply should be strictly limited.

EARLIER:

The City of Nanaimo has a dire message to its residents: don’t use the City’s water supply.

Director of engineering and public works Bill Sims said storm related issues impacting the water treatment plant have resulted in extremely low supply.

Sims said the limited availability of water is required for the fire department.

“This is of critcal importance, if we lose too much water from the plant we’ll have to shut the City’s water taps off,” Sims said.

Sims stressed water quality is not the problem and it’s safe to drink, but supply is the dire concern.

It’s unclear when the problem will be resolved, Sims told NanaimoNewsNOW.

Sims said the generator powering the water treatment plant failed, while other computer related problems are impacting the plant’s ability to process necessary water supply.

“It impacted the functionality of the water treatment plant, we are unable to sustain production…we do have generator power, but a number of functions have been disrupted.”

Sims said the Nanaimo Aquatic Centre, Nanaimo Ice Centre, and Frank Crane Arena and the neighbouring pool are closed until further notice.

— this story will be updated if and when conditions change

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