People and businesses are being urged to conserve water after an unusually dry spring has left the Thames River running low.
The Upper Thames River Conservation Authority (UTRCA) issued a level one advisory about the low water level on Tuesday.
"We evaluate low water conditions by looking at several indicators, including precipitation and stream flows," said UTRCA Senior Water Resources Engineer Mark Helsten.
According to the conservation authority, the local watershed received only an average of 51 mm of precipitation last month, roughly 61 per cent of the amount normally seen in April. Over the past three months, precipitation was at about 46 per cent of its normal amount.
Stream flows are also below normal across the watershed, the conservation authority has determined.
The drier than normal spring is now affecting water levels in some of the Upper Thames' reservoirs.
"We hold back some of the spring runoff to raise the reservoirs to their target summer elevations," said Helsten. "This year, Wildwood Reservoir is still about one metre below its summer target elevation, but we’ve been able to fill Pittock Reservoir and hopefully we can maintain it at that elevation until mid-June when we begin to release water and augment flows downstream."
While RT Orr Reservoir in Stratford has reached its target summer level, Mitchell Reservoir in Mitchell has yet to be filled due to the dry conditions.
The authority is encouraging water conservation for the time being, but did note the measure won't have a significant impact on the current situation in all areas.
"The City of London and some other communities take water from Lake Huron and Lake Erie. Reducing water use in these communities will not improve flows in the Thames River or its tributaries," the conservation authority said.