Water restrictions remain "on track" to end Sunday: City

The lifting of water-use restrictions is likely just hours away, a city official said Saturday.

Tests on the quality of water flowing through the newly-repaired Bearspaw Water Feeder Main have shown positive results while the further stabilizing of the system continues as hoped, said Francois Bouchart, the city’s director of capital priorities and investment.

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“Although we need to remain cautious, if all goes as planned, we remain on track to remove all water restrictions on Sunday,” Bouchart said.

“After the water system is stabilized, we will work to restore water levels in our reservoirs.”

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He said some Calgarians may notice cloudy or chlorine-scented water as the system comes back on line but that it’s safe to drink and those qualities can be cleared up by letting water sit in a pitcher.

“Minimizing the turbidity in the water will take up to eight hours,” Bouchart said of the work crews are performing to flush fire hydrants.

Since late-August, Calgary has lived under a Stage 4 water restriction, which bans outdoor use while residents have been encouraged to conserve indoors by skipping toilet flushes, taking shorter showers and using appliances judiciously.

The city’s lived under some form of water limits since a feeder main in Montgomery ruptured on June 5.

It was followed by the discovery of five more vulnerable spots along the northwest line fed by the Bearspaw Water Treatment plant that supplies 60 per cent of the city supply.

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Then, in August, the city announced it had found 21 additional trouble spots in Bowness and Montgomery, leading to round-the-clock repairs and the latest Phase 4 restrictions.

On several days earlier in the month, water use by residents greatly exceeded what the city considered sustainable levels, a situation that threatened to impact the Glenmore Water Treatment plant that’s been working full-tilt to supply Calgary nearly all of its water.

But more recently, as temperatures cooled, public water use fell to more sustainable levels, hitting 480 million litres Thursday and Friday.

While the work has inconvenienced adjacent residents and hurt businesses along 16th Avenue N.W. in Montgomery, the city said the work was completed a week earlier than initially scheduled.

Those in the landscaping and irrigation industries say that’s welcome news but the damage done by the rules will be difficult if not impossible to make up.

The head of one irrigation firm said his company’s lost $250,000 worth of business due to water-use constraints and will take a few years to recover.

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“(The end of restrictions) is too late, 2024 is a total loss,” said Myles Sidorak, owner of NAIAD Irrigation.

He was forced to make temporary layoffs, though “had we known this was going to last most of the summer, we would have laid off a lot more.”

To cover those financial losses, his company has had to raise prices, though their customers have been understanding, he said.

The city, said Sidorak, has been sympathetic with their industry and has worked with them regarding Calgary’s water management strategy that he expects will see use limited to certain days next year.

“Next year will be a way better year (unless) they shut us down again next summer do more repairs,” he said.

Some layoffs in the irrigation industry are permanent after losing 40 per cent of this year’s usable days, said Kyle Brost, president of the Canadian Prairie Chapter of the Irrigation Association.

While he said he understands the city’s need to finish the repair work before water flows declined further, “we’d have preferred they delayed the (September) project by two to three weeks to give us more runway, we could be in our winterization process.”

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Local landscapers are grateful the water feeder main repairs have been completed a week ahead of originally scheduled, said Joel Beatson, executive director of Landscape Alberta, the industry’s trade group.

“We’re watching the weather forecast and hoping for another month of warm weather so we can get some work in,” he said.

Some operators in his sector saw a 60 to 80 per cent reduction in revenues due to restrictions that lasted, in some form, the entire summer, said Beatson.

He said the September Phase 4 restrictions caught many in the sector by surprise.

“If we’d have known in advance, we’d have taken that time (in August) to plant more and with the September closure, we saw sales drop right off,” said Beatson.

He said widespread layoffs among irrigators at the end of August were “unheard of” and that some operators were selling their products and services in the U.S. to compensate for losses.

“People were doing whatever they could,” said Beatson.

He also said the business of farms that supply landscapers trees and shrubs has been disrupted due to their inability to sell product — a consequence that will likely reverberate for years.

But he said his industry is also looking forward to advising the city on its water management policies to ensure they conserve water efficiently and assist his sector.

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X: @BillKaufmannjrn

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