Emergency Repairs: The City of Montreal is Asking for a Collective Effort to Reduce Drinking Water Consumption 

The Town of Mount Royal wishes to inform residents that, due to emergency work being carried out by the City of Montréal on a major watermain, a collective effort to reduce drinking water consumption is being requested over the coming weeks.

Although the work is taking place on Montreal’s territory, it affects all municipalities supplied by Montréal’s water distribution network, including the Town of Mount Royal.

According to information provided by the City of Montreal, inspections and monitoring of a major watermain located beneath Atwater Avenue revealed that repairs are required in the short term. To allow this work to be completed safely, the watermain will need to be taken out of service for several weeks. At the same time, two other major watermains elsewhere in the network are already offline due to reconstruction or rehabilitation work, temporarily reducing the network’s overall capacity.

Since this new closure occurs as the summer season begins, at a time when water demand is at its yearly peak, Montréal’s drinking water production infrastructure will be under very high pressure.

As we face this exceptional situation, it is essential to reduce drinking water consumption across the city.  

In this regard, Montréal and its boroughs will take the following measures: 

• Suspend preventive sewer conduit rinsing and cleaning.
• Suspend flow tests during fire hydrant inspections.
• Suspend or limit certain activities, such as decorative fountains that are not equipped with a recirculation loop, street washing, and non-essential watering.
• Repair potential leaks across the aqueduct system as soon as possible, to limit water waste. 

 Residents are invited to contribute to the effort in the following ways:  

• Comply with the by-law concerning drinking water use (Règlement sur l’usage de l’eau potable), namely regarding permitted and prohibited uses of drinking water. Compliance will be particularly enforced given the situation.
• Reduce watering.
• Avoid using water for outdoor cleaning.
• Take daily measures to reduce water consumption, as all individual actions, when compounded, can have a significant impact.  

 Water-saving measures promoted by the government of Québec are listed here(in French).

As the situation unfolds, additional reduction measures, such as a watering ban, may be imposed. 

Visit the City of Montreal's website for all the details.