More than five weeks after a catastrophic water main break resulted in restrictions being placed on Calgarians’ outdoor water use, officials plan to take further steps to test water infrastructure with the aim of easing restrictions if all goes well.
“The feeder main has been filled with water,” Mayor Jyoti Gondek said at a news conference Monday morning. “And the caution that we are exercising right now is the speed at which we flow water through the pipe.
“The speed of flow has been increasing over the past two-week period, and as we have increased that speed, we have monitored how the pipe is responding to that pressure. And because things are looking good at the moment, with only one pump turned on at the Bearspaw plant, the plan is to turn one more pump on midday today to increase the speed at which water can flow.”
Gondek said officials will employ acoustic monitoring and will watch what impact pressure increases have over the next 72 hours.
“If there are no issues, it is possible that more information about moving to Stage 2 (restrictions) will be available on Thursday.”
Calgarians currently live with Stage 3 restrictions on outdoor water use, which prohibits the watering of lawns, gardens, trees and shrubs with sprinklers or hoses. Stage 2 restrictions allows for watering once a week for a maximum of one hour during specified hours on an allotted day based on a home’s street address house number.
“Let me be clear about why we need you to hang on a bit longer,” Gondek said. “I cannot stress enough that the next 72 hours are critical to understand how the pipe is responding to speed of flow.”
Michael Thompson, the city’s general manager of infrastructure services, said his team is not concerned about sections of the water pipe that were just repaired, but they are watching other sections of the pipe near where damage or hot spots were detected.
“Since we’ve brought the pipe back into service, we’ve detected three new wire snaps in various locations,” he explained. “To be clear, this does not mean we need to repair or replace these sections of pipe in an emergency manner. But it does mean that we need to be measured and thoughtful in how we proceed.
“The pipe is full of water now but it is not moving as quickly as it usually does.”
Thompson noted increasing the speed at which water flows through the pipe, the city can increase water supply.
“We want to lift as many restrictions as we can,” he said, but added the city is “not out of the woods yet.”
He explained that officials have determined the city is ready “to take a calculated risk to increase the flow” of water on Monday and added that currently the flow of water in the pipe is at about 55 per cent of normal flow.
The city needs to reach 70 per cent to move to Stage 2 or Stage 1 restrictions on outdoor water use, and needs to reach 75 per cent to consider lifting restrictions.
Thompson said increasing water flow on Monday could lead to issues but reiterated that officials see the step as a calculated risk.
He added that if a new break were to occur, the city can “rapidly respond to any situation that comes up.”
Gondek reiterated her commitment to having a third-party review look into what caused that catastrophic break last month and how the city responded to the crisis.
“We need to make sure that this doesn’t happen again,” she said, adding that she will continue to advocate for the to be a national push to look at how Canadian lawmakers can do more to strengthen its water infrastructure.
“If this can happen in Calgary, it can happen anywhere.”
Kerry Black, an assistant professor at the University of Calgary’s Schulich School of Engineering, said it is typical to wait a bit longer for things to get back to normal, especially after a busy season like the Calgary Stampede.
“I think … we were always going to stay in that stage a bit longer to make sure everything was OK. Not everything is going as planned. There’s a couple of hiccups along the way that you can’t really prepare for,” she told Global News.
“We’re starting to get out of that, but we still have a little ways to go before we feel really confident where we’re at with our water.”
Black said the city is taking a cautious approach with the Bearspaw water main but noted that “it’s the only way” the city can approach repairs.
“The last thing you want to do is overstress the system and get yourself in a situation where you know you’re facing even more rigid water restrictions,” she said.
“I think there’s a desire to stay where we’re at until we can make sure that we’re ready to go to the next stage. And really, I think what you’ve seen for most people is generally an appreciation that … we’re out of that worst part and that you can deal with outdoor water restrictions for the most part.”
Black added that water restrictions are becoming a reality in a lot of Canadian cities.
“Calgary was talking about it well before the water main broke when we were discussing the potential impact of drought. And so I think we’re headed in a space where we have to be really cognizant of how we’re using our outdoor water.”
Calgarian Jackie McLenaghan said the water main break really highlighted how much water the city consumes on a daily basis. She told Global News a lot of people she knows are reconsidering their water consumption.
“I’m pretty grateful to be by the river and have all this and I think the city did what they had to do for sure,” she said.
“I don’t know how to fix those pipes, so I followed the restrictions. It wasn’t the end of the world.”
Benjamin Crnkovic, another Calgarian, said the city did “a really good job” communicating the repair process at each phase.
“It’s been really hard because we’ve had a really nice summer and we’ve had a lot of restrictions. So, you know, the sooner we can get those lifted, the better,” he told Global News. “But I understand we want to be cautious and you don’t want to jump the gun. So, you know, it’s been a hard balance.”