Update July 6: Critical water main break affecting city-wide water ...

CALGARY – The City took another big step in its recovery from the Bearspaw South Feeder Main break today moving Calgarians from Stage 4 water restrictions to Stage 3 and lifting the fire ban.

Under the Stage 3 restrictions, hand watering of plants with a watering can or container is allowed. Outdoor watering with a sprinkler or hose is not allowed.For businesses, water for construction purposes (including dust control, grading, and compaction) is also allowed.

Information on water restrictions can be found by visiting Calgary.ca/restrictions.

Public outdoor pools and City of Calgary spray parks will receive an exemption from Stage 3 restrictions and will be able to re-open beginning today, more information including reopening timelines will be made available on Calgary.ca. Some splash parks, including Rotary Park, Canmore, Variety, Somerset and Valleyview are expected to be open to the public on the afternoon of Sunday, July 7.

Local forecasts indicate Calgary will experience high temperatures beginning this weekend, and these exemptions help us create safe spaces for all Calgarians looking for relief from the heat. A map of The City’s cooldown spaces is located at calgary.ca/heat.

Now that Calgarians can hand-water from their own sources, The City is announcing that we will be closing its residential water pick-up locations later today and reducing commercial pickup locations. The Ogden location for river water collection for the construction industry through Stage 3 Outdoor Watering restrictions.

“We want to thank Calgarians as we continue on this path to restore our system to full capacity,” said Calgary Emergency Management Agency Chief Sue Henry. “I know these may seem like baby steps along the way, but we couldn’t have arrived at this stage without the help of our community and their water conservation efforts.”

The impacted pipe is now operating at 55% capacity as pressure has gradually continued to increase, testing on the line continues.

With the progress made to this point, The City will deactivate the Municipal Emergency Plan and ramp down the involvement of the Calgary Emergency Management Agency in this incident and the Emergency Operations Centre will close.

Maintenance work at the Glenmore Water Treatment Plant was completed Friday. The PipeDiver completed its condition assessment of the impacted feeder line. We expect to receive the results in three-to-four weeks. After assessing the results, we will use this data to inform us if there is further investigation or repair work needed.  

Fire Ban lifted

In response to the move to Stage 3 Outdoor Watering restrictions, The City has also announced the lifting of the fire ban that was implemented for safety reasons. We continue to urge Calgarians to use fire safe practices when handling outdoor open flames, including barbeques and backyard fire pits and when disposing of smoking materials.

Calgarians can also inform themselves on rules and fire pit safe practices by visiting Calgary.ca/firepits.

Keeping Calgarians informed

Our daily live media updates are now completed. We will continue sharing developing news and important updates with Calgarians regularly. Please visit Calgary.ca and our social channels to stay informed. You can also sign up to receive City of Calgary Newsroom updates at newsroom.calgary.ca.

Recreation program updates

We have resumed most City services that use water indoors such as pools, ice rinks and recreation centres. Most additional aquatic amenities such as indoor play structures, hot tubs, steam rooms, waterslides and kiddie pools are back in.

Street sweeping update

Community street sweeping will resume Monday, July 8 and is expected to be completed later in July. Sweeping helps reduce water pollution by preventing the run-off of sanding materials and debris into our storm water system.

Schedule look-up and notification signups are available at Calgary.ca/sweep.