Non-essential water use ban likely to continue until Sunday: Epcor

A ban on non-essential water use in the Edmonton-area will likely continue until midday Sunday, Epcor said Tuesday afternoon.

A ban on non-essential water use in the Edmonton-area will likely continue until midday Sunday, Epcor said Tuesday afternoon.

The company announced the ban on Monday afternoon after a failure in the pumping system at the E.L. Smith water treatment plant around 2 a.m. that day.

"We've determined the likely cause of the issues, and these are related to the electrical system that supplies power to the large distribution pumps at the E.L. Smith water treatment plant, preventing us from distributing treated water into the system from that facility," Craig Bonneville of Epcor told reporters on Tuesday afternoon.

Repairing the problem involves replacing a number of large cables within the facility, according to Bonneville.

He says two of the four large pumps at the E.L. Smith plant are back online thanks to repair crews, but work continues on the remaining pumps.

The Rossdale water treatment plant also remains online, but is not able to supply the Epcor service area with enough water for normal consumption.

"Once the plant has been fully restored, it will still take a few days to replenish reservoirs and stabilize the distribution network. So until we attain those operating levels, the mandatory ban will remain," he said.