‘It’s just really frustrating that it keeps happening around this area, I just hope they can solve it fast’
The repaired Bearspaw south feeder main continues to perform well and meet demand as the City of Calgary repairs another break in Montgomery.
A smaller 10-inch water main ruptured in the 5100 block of Bowness Road N.W. on Friday, cutting off service to 14 residential and 10 commercial properties.
Part of the road in both directions near the break are temporarily closed for repairs, which are anticipated to take about 48 hours, according to the city’s water services director, Nancy Mackay.
“While this break is near the Bearspaw south feeder main, it is not directly connected to the feeder main — and it is on a much smaller 10-inch cast-iron pipe,” Mackay said on Saturday.
The smaller break is not impacting the flow of water through the feeder main — which remains at 70 per cent of its maximum capacity — nor does it affect the city’s ability to meet water demand.
“Water main breaks of this size are not unusual, Calgary maintains nearly 15,000 kilometres of under underground water infrastructure as part of our drinking water, wastewater and our stormwater systems,” Mackay said.
She highlighted that Calgary has one of the lowest average main breaks per 100 kilometres when compared to other major Canadian cities, but acknowledged that the number of breaks is “a little bit higher” than they’d normally see.
“We anticipate that we may see a few additional breaks as the system responds to the changes that we have been making to restore water flow,” she said.
Montgomery resident Robert Neshine had water rise up several inches beside the foundation of his residence due to Friday’s main break.
His home was also among those that were without water as of early Saturday afternoon.
“It sucks — can’t the flush toilets, you have to haul water into the house — it’s not great,” Neshine said.
The city has deployed a temporary water wagon for his block, which to his knowledge had water for the duration of the feeder main crisis until this smaller rupture happened.
Neshine noted that when the feeder main broke on June 5 — just a few hundred metres away — there was no noticeable smell, but with this break there was a strong scent coming from the site.
Yejin Kim, manager at Yum Yum BBQ on Bowness Road, was one of a few businesses near Friday’s break that was open on Saturday — despite not having running water.
A restaurant a few doors down in the same strip mall had a closure notice on its door, citing the pipe break as the cause.
Up until Friday when they noticed water pressure was low, Kim said they haven’t had issues.
“There were fire trucks and stuff, we were wondering what’s happening,” Kim said. “After (a) few hours, one of the workers came to us, telling us that something broke.”
She said the water crisis as a whole has had a big impact on their business, with less customers coming and going due to closures.
“We’ve never been this slow these days — today’s like our slowest day,” Kim said.
“It’s just really frustrating that it keeps happening around this area, I just hope they can solve it fast.”
Calgary remains under Stage 2 water restrictions, but it’s possible the city will move to Stage 1 on Monday if things continue going well.
As of 8 a.m. Saturday, the city had not detected any new wire snaps along the feeder main, Mackay said.