Merritt’s watering notice, updated October 1, has the city at Level 3: lawns on two days a week, even-numbered addresses Thursday and Sunday, odd-numbered Tuesday and Saturday, and strata complexes and mobile home parks by unit number; manual sprinklers from 6 to 8 am or 7 to 9 pm, and automatic irrigation from midnight to 2 am.
Hand watering or drip irrigation in gardens other than lawns, and washing with an auto shut-off valve, are allowed at any time. On the same page the city says it “has abundant water in its shallow and deep aquifers” and that its well system “is sufficient to meet the municipality’s needs year-round.”
The city gives two reasons for limiting demand anyway. Spreading lawn watering across the week lets treated water refill the reservoirs “without creating sudden peaks in system use.” Lower overall use lessens stress on the Coldwater River, “a losing-reach tributary where water drains into the aquifers.” The restrictions, it says, are “a preventive water conservation measure” and “not tied to real-time water capacity.” The levels come from the city’s Outdoor Watering Conservation Policy, approved in 1998 and last amended in July 2023, which applies to users of the city’s system: three watering days a week at Levels 1 and 2, two at Level 3, one at Level 4.
The city’s water system page adds a third part of the story. Merritt has five wells and mostly relies on four of them, which are drilled into shallow aquifers about 30 to 50 metres deep. The Kengard well draws from a different, deeper aquifer at about 150 metres. Its capacity is 50 litres a second, and the city uses about 2 percent of it because of high manganese that will have to be filtered out.
A treatment facility is at Phase 1 (assessments, preliminary design, community engagement, and detailed design and tender preparation) on a provincial grant from fall 2024, and the page gives no completion date. With the deep well in fuller use, the city says, it “will not have to rely as much on the shallow aquifers fed by water sources such as the losing-reach Coldwater River,” which would also lessen its effect on fish habitat.
BC’s licensing rules read the river and the aquifer together. The Province’s guidance on environmental flow needs says the water manager must consider a stream’s environmental flow needs, “the volume and timing of water flow required for proper functioning of the aquatic ecosystem,” when deciding a licence application for an aquifer hydraulically connected to a stream; some kinds of application are exempted by regulation. Where a river feeds the ground, as the city says the Coldwater does, that consideration can reach an application to pump from it.
The Note: Having water is one thing; pumping it at the hour everyone wants it, from an aquifer the river feeds, is another. By the city’s own account, Merritt’s shallow wells and the Coldwater are one system.
Who should pay attention: Merritt water customers, whom the schedule binds. Owners of private wells around Merritt, whom it does not. Anyone planning a non-domestic groundwater licence application in the valley.
What to do next: On the city system, check the live notice before watering, because the level can change. Please confirm your source and the associated rules for a private well, as the city’s policy does not apply. If your groundwater use is non-domestic and needs a licence, the river connection can be part of what the Province considers. And watch the Kengard treatment project for what it changes about where Merritt draws its water.
Checked against: City of Merritt watering notice, updated October 1, 2026; community water system; Outdoor Watering Conservation Policy; the Province’s environmental flow needs guidance · checked October 9, 2026
