Calgary journalists provide breaking updates and a guide on everything you need to know as the water crisis unfolds
Calgary’s Bearspaw water feeder main that ruptured beneath Montgomery earlier in June has been repaired, and crews are currently repairing five “hot spots.”
Here is everything you need to know today as the city continues to deal with a water crisis:
What you need to know about Calgary’s water emergency
- Calgary’s water main could be fixed by July 5th.
- Councillors are raising questions about the cost of the ongoing water crisis.
- The city issued a local state of emergency at 8 a.m. on Saturday, June 15.
- The city identified five additional issues with the pipe and says it will now take three to five weeks to repair everything.
- Stampede will go ahead.
- The city has fixed the initial break in the feeder main and is repairing hot spots.
- Six private sector partners have been engaged by the city to help do the work.
- Calgary is operating under Stage 4 water restrictions, meaning all outdoor water use is banned.
- The mayor has asked residents to conserve indoor water use as much as possible, suggesting shorter showers and fewer toilet flushes.
- Commercial and industrial water users have also been asked to cut back, with Gondek asking businesses to consider allowing employees to work from home to “save them the time of having a shower in the morning.”
- The city has opened a site at the West Baker Boat Launch where construction companies can gather free, non-potable water from the Bow River.
- CEMA established city-wide financial coding to track all related expenses to this event and the cost will be shared with the public.
WATCH: Mayor Jyoti Gondek morning update – June 21
Officials stress continued water conservation as hotter temperatures loom
Summer has officially arrived, but Calgarians won’t be allowed to break out their slip ‘n slides or sprinkler systems just yet.
With temperatures forecasted to climb into the 20s in the coming week, city officials are continuing to stress the need for outdoor water restrictions and indoor conservation efforts amid ongoing repairs to the Bearspaw south feeder main.
Mayor Jyoti Gondek stated Thursday that a citywide fire ban and Stage 4 water restrictions, which prohibit any outdoor watering activities, will remain in effect until the water main is fixed and the distribution system is fully restored. She repeated an anticipated “best-case estimate” for service to be fully restored is July 5.
Until then, the need to keep conserving water means summer activities may need to be tweaked, according to Gondek. She suggested alternative ways of beating the heat in the coming week such as going to a movie theatre, visiting an air-conditioned mall or hanging out in the basement.
Calgary’s construction industry pulling water from Bow River after province fast-tracks permit
The fast-flowing Bow River will be the construction industry’s source of water until Calgary finishes repairs to its damaged water main — a solution the city fast-tracked to relieve some pressure from its clean-water supply.
The city has opened a site at the West Baker Park Boat Launch near Bowness where construction companies can gather free, non-potable water from the Bow River, according to a letter sent to Calgary’s construction industry on Thursday.
The move will allow construction to continue “while not putting any added stress on the city’s water supply,” Mayor Jyoti Gondek said Thursday morning.
‘Happy to do his part’: 98-year-old Calgary gardener makes every drop count
For many years a near 100-year-old Calgary man has been collecting rain water, which has become more crucial than ever for his garden in light of the city’s ongoing water crisis.
Since a vital water feeder main burst in early June, Calgarians have been hit with outdoor watering bans and are being asked to conserve water in their homes.
Calling the northwest community of Varsity home for over 50 years, 98-year-old Allan Chanin is a “passionate gardener,” said his daughter Michelle Dulmadge.
“(He) has always had rain barrels, is happy to do his part to conserve during the water restrictions,” said Dulmadge. “His greatest joy is being out in his garden and so you worry with water restrictions that he wouldn’t be able to enjoy the garden or tend to it.”
Chanin adds, “I’ve been growing stuff all my life.”
Being forced to hang up the hose, he now chooses to use water from his two rain barrels — which he favoured even before restrictions.
Chanin encourages others to get their own barrel: “I’ve been catching water and using it on the plants; plants all seem to do better with rainwater.”
City of Calgary afternoon update – June 20
Thursday afternoon, Mayor Jyoti Gondek addressed concerns over the costs of repair. She said officials are consolidating information, and looking into emergency funds through the provincial and federal government.
Calgary Emergency Management Agency deputy chief Coby Duerr shared that on the day of the feeder main break, CEMA established city-wide financial coding to track all related expenses to this event.
“It is all being tracked,” he said, and the cost of this incident will be shared with the public.
Duerr also shared that one of the Bow River sites designated for construction use is now open, located at the West Baker Park boat launch. The boat launch remains open.
Access to this non-potable water is only for contractors with active development agreements and permits, commercial landscape companies, bulk water station users, those with hydrant connection unit agreements and contractors working for capital projects for the City of Calgary and regional customers. This water is not currently available to the general public.
Duerr emphasized that river water is not safe for drinking.
He also shared an update on ticketing in relation to this event. Fourteen tickets have been issued to companies for water misuse, and four violation tickets have been issued regarding the fire ban.
In regards to concerns about future water main breaks and other inspections the city should be doing, Gondek announced that the city has been working with oil and gas experts Pure Technology on implementing a smart ball inspection or monitoring method which can be used for monitoring while there is water in the pipe.
10/3 podcast: Calgary has been under severe water restrictions for weeks after main pipe breaks
A break in the city’s main water pipe has had Calgary under severe restrictions for more than two weeks, and it could be several more before the problem is fixed.
This has led to concerns about water usage, and whether the city’s premiere summer festival, the Stampede, should go ahead.
Calgary Herald reporter Scott Strasser joins Dave Breakenridge to discuss what led to the pipe’s failure, how the city is managing the problem, and whether there are concerns that the taps could run dry.
Repair sites fully excavated as fix for Calgary’s water main could be complete July 5
Wednesday marked two weeks since the main gave way in Montgomery on June 5, leading to Stage 4 water restrictions and eventually a state of local emergency.
After the repairs were complete at the site of the break earlier this week, crews shifted to fixing the five “hot spots” at two separate work sites nearby. The city already had parts for three of the repairs, so the last two pipes had to be outsourced.
The final two pipe segments needed for repairs arrived from San Diego late Tuesday and were being prepared for installation by being sandblasted and epoxy coated, a process that takes two to three days, according to city officials.
Areas around the affected pipe segments on the two sites were fully excavated Wednesday, allowing crews to begin cutting into portions that will be removed and replaced.
“We are aiming for the low end of our original timeline of three to five weeks, which would be July the 5th,” said Michael Thompson, the city’s general manager of infrastructure services.
“There are still many risks ahead, but every day we work through this complex repair, we become more confident in our timeline.”
‘We’re going to have to pay for this’: Councillors raise questions about cost of ongoing water crisis
The situation is still fluid, but some Calgary city councillors are already starting to raise questions about the financial impact of the ongoing water crisis, as repair work gets underway on the Bearspaw south feeder main’s five additional “hot spots.”
Council received an update on the water main situation at their regular meeting Tuesday from water services director Nancy Mackay, director of capital priorities and investment Francois Bouchart and Calgary Emergency Management Agency deputy chief Coby Duerr.
After their presentation, Ward 10 Coun. Andre Chabot asked about the crisis’ overall financial impact, stating he hasn’t seen any figures yet that would hint how much the emergency will ultimately cost the city.
“At some point in time the rubber is going to hit the road,” he said. “When are we going to find out what the cost is going to be for this, and then utilize that in assessing what additional investments we’ll have to make into the future?”
Calgary’s catastrophic water main rupture to undergo independent review
The city is promising an independent review of the ruptured feeder main to identify why the break occurred and how future failures could be prevented.
Repair work is progressing concurrently on the five so-called hot spots identified along the line late last week, with pipe from the San Diego County Water Authority expected to arrive by truck Tuesday evening.
Michael Thompson, the city’s general manager of infrastructure services, said preparation work will take some time as the segments must be sandblasted and epoxy coated prior to installation.
City officials still estimate three to five weeks for water main mayhem to subside full service restoration to occur, although an updated timeline is expected by the end of this week.
“I know you want to understand what happened to this pipe in the first place, and I do, too,” Mayor Jyoti Gondek said Tuesday. “It’s for that reason that I called for a third party to do a complete incident review of this situation.”
