All Calgary water restrictions lifted 'immediately' with feeder main ...

Sunday marked the end of the second round of Stage 4 outdoor water restrictions

Published Sep 22, 2024  •  Last updated 2 hours ago  •  3 minute read

A sprinkler waters a lawn in Calgary on Sunday, Aug. 25, 2024. Brent Calver/Postmedia

Calgary is now able to return to regular water use after weeks of restrictions while a crucial feeder main was offline for repairs.

Sunday marked the end of the second round of Stage 4 outdoor water restrictions, which were reintroduced on Aug. 26 when the city began repairing 21 spots identified in July.

The saga first began on June 5 when the Bearspaw south feeder main burst, a catastrophe that crippled Calgary’s water supply until initial repairs were complete about a month later.

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“After around the clock repair by construction crews together with the city’s water team we are lifting all water restrictions immediately,” said Mayor Jyoti Gondek on Sunday morning.

With the feeder main back in service, the city is now confident it can meet normal water demand, according to capital priorities and investment director Francois Bouchart.

“You may also notice cloudy water or chlorine smell in your water over the next few days,” Bouchart said. This water remains safe to drink, he said.

Gondek, meanwhile, thanked the workers who completed the repairs, as well as Calgarians for saving water.

“The level of collaboration that we have seen since June 5 is the reason that we’ve been able to get through two significant rounds of work,” she said.

“Whether you turned off the shower while you were soaping up or only did full loads of laundry, every litre saved reduced pressure on our water system.”

There are two smaller sections of pipe to repair in October and November along Memorial Drive and Parkdale, which Bouchart said are smaller and won’t require citywide restrictions.

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“We still have some work to do, but it will be far less impactful to daily life,” he said.

“We can isolate these sections while keeping the feeder main running.”

David Duckworth, the city’s chief administrative officer reiterated that the first round of repairs in July, including the five hot spots identified, cost an estimated $20 to $25 million.

“We have been able to better manage the cost of these recent (Aug. 26) repairs, although much bigger in scope than the work that was completed in June, because they were planned rather than an emergency,” Duckworth said.

They are still waiting for all the invoices, but the repairs to the latest 21 spots are estimated to cost $15 to $20 million, according to Duckworth.

He said that by the end of October, they expect to receive a detailed “forensic report” from consultants with soil and structural analysis of the feeder main.

“We also engaged a consultant to develop a fulsome report that will outline recommendations for the medium and long term rehabilitation strategies for the Bearspaw south feeder main.”

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Bouchart said when it come to the course of work on the feeder main, there is a lot that’s been learned.

“Part of that is learning how to operate our system differently when we do have one of these failures,” Bouchart explained. “It’s extremely important for us to be resilient to failures within the system.”

He said they’ve also learned a lot about repairs to this type of pipe.

“We’ve learned how to work with our community when there’s a call for water restrictions,” Bouchart said.

City officials have previously promised an independent review of the feeder main rupture and response, which is still underway, according to Duckworth.

“I would like to make it clear; we are 100 per cent accountable to Calgarians,” Duckworth said. “There are still many questions that Calgarians have that still need to be answered.”

Findings or recommendations from the independent third-party review, in tandem with the city’s own forensic analysis, will answer those questions, he said.

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