The Town of Okotoks implemented a mandatory water ban on Friday leaving many residents unhappy.

A few vocal Okotokians have questioned why the Town continues expansion and growth, whilst not having enough water supply for the current populous.

Operations and Infrastructure Director, Chris Radford says, this water ban has nothing to do with expansion, and everything to do with lack of rainfall that is usually depended on to assist in re-filling the Town's reservoirs, and the Sheep River.

"This water issue that we're dealing with right now, is basically as a result of the long sustained, hot and dry weather, that all of Southern Alberta has been experiencing. It's impacted the Sheep River, and affected our ability to pump water."

Councillor Carrie Fischer was quoted in a Facebook post, saying when it comes to expansions and building, they have a water allocation policy that calls for the developer to bring water into the future community as well.

"While we recently completed a successful annexation, development on those lands will not be occurring until we have the water situation solved. Even within the former boundaries (prior to July 1), we have had several developers on hold because we don't have adequate water for them to develop. We have had a water queuing policy in place for several years to allocate the water we have fairly between developers with land available to develop. If a developer brings water to the town, they are able to keep a percentage of it for their development and the balance goes into the town's pool. Keep in mind, we aren't even at the 30,000 population cap yet."

In the same Facebook thread, Councillor Tanya Thorn says even when we receive the go ahead for the future Calgary Pipeline, it may not answer all of our water woes.

"We did make the decision in November 2013 to go forward with a Calgary Pipeline and have been working on that solution ever since. New development in this community has all needed to follow our water allocation policy which requires them to provide water before they can break ground so we have had the appropriate amount of water for the development that has occurred to date. On average our community uses between 7 - 8 million litres of water per day. With the heat wave and the desire to keep lawns green, fill backyard pools etc this usage has jumped to between 14 - 16 million litres per day. In a drought it doesn't matter how much you water your grass will not be green. When you have a water basin that is strained as it is not being refilled with ground water from rainfall this only compounds the problem. Our water issues have impacted property values to date and have made them higher as developers have had to purchase water licenses to even build in Okotoks which impacts the affordability of our community in general. A pipeline will help us mitigate this but honestly I am not certain it will ever eliminate the potential for outdoor watering ban. In a drought as is currently being experienced it requires everyone to be conscious of water usage. Green lawns and backyard pools or fire protection and drinking water?"

Radford says, when it comes to expansion plans, the Town is planning for the future water supply as well.

"Well, we're always continuing to look at expansion and sourcing.  I know there's license transfers for further allocation, with that there will be infrastructure designed and implemented to meet future demands, and those are being worked on all the time, in long term water strategies such as the Calgary Pipeline."

Radford and the Operations and Infrastructure Department don't expect there to be any further bans, such as an indoor water ban as the slow down should refill the reservoir to an acceptable level.

"When it comes to indoor use, resident's are doing a great job." Radford says it's outdoor use that's the problem  "I believe this is unprecedented.  I think we're seeing one of the hottest, driest summers on record or it's shaping up to be that way, we need to ensure that we're prepared and we can continue to have that valuable resource stored for the town and for emergencies."

The Town has stopped their use of outdoor water as well.

Any water used on fields, trees, parks or washing of town vehicles and equipment is done with recycled, non potable water.

Questions, comments, or story ideas? Email us at news@okotoksonline.com