Regina Leader-Post Staff
Regina and Moose Jaw have lifted voluntary water restrictions, effective immediately, the two cities announced in separate news releases Friday morning.
Both announced voluntary restrictions on Wednesday afternoon following a brief power outage at the Buffalo Pound Water Treatment Plant around 9 p.m. on Tuesday.
Residents were encouraged to limit water use in a variety of ways to conserve emergency supplies while crews worked to get the plant operating at full capacity again.
Ryan Johnson, the treatment plant’s CEO, said emergency generators kicked in at the time of the power outage, but there was a malfunction in a gate valve that flooded several pumps required to run the plant.
Water production was paused while the pumps were dried out and restarted. Plant operations were gradually returning to normal levels, the city said in a news release Thursday.
“We’re still not sure how that gate valve closed, but we are doing a root cause analysis and a lessons-learned on it,” said Johnson in an interview Thursday.
The treatment plant, which is located near Moose Jaw, supplies water to both cities. It is currently receiving extensive upgrades, which are expected to be complete by early 2026.
- with files from Larissa Kurz
