Photo: Contributed

The pipeline explosion near Prince George last week is causing a provincial shortage of natural gas. 

In Kamloops, the municipality is taking steps to reduce its consumption.

Effective immediately, the city will reduce its natural gas usage by doing the following:

• reducing the temperature of all pools by approximately 0.6ºC (1ºF)
• reducing the temperature in all occupied buildings by 1ºC
• reducing the temperature in all utility and heated storage buildings to 5ºC
• turning off tube heaters in all arenas
• reducing the temperature of the hot water for Zambonis

“The majority of the natural gas used by the city is for heating purposes,” said Jen Fretz, the city’s civic operations director. “Therefore, we are going to make some operational changes that will immediately reduce our overall usage.”

With the exception of the utility and heated storage buildings, these changes will be in place for the duration of the shortage. 

Heat may need to be restored to the storage buildings if the outside temperature drops dramatically in order to prevent the contents from freezing.