Calgary eases indoor water restrictions but ban on outdoor use remains

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Calgary has lifted voluntary restrictions on indoor water consumption, although officials are asking residents to slowly return to normal use as the city cranks up the amount of water flowing through a newly-repaired pipeline.

The mandatory ban on outdoor water use remains in place, with the expectation that it will soon end, officials said in an update Tuesday. Calgary and a number of surrounding communities imposed the mandatory and voluntary restrictions June 6, the day after the Bearspaw South Feedermain, which carries 60 per cent of the city’s treated water, suffered a catastrophic failure.

Mayor Jyoti Gondek said in a press conference Tuesday morning that Calgary’s experience is proof Canada needs to ensure funding is available to fix and replace vital infrastructure before more catastrophic failures cripple other networks across the country.

Despite the lifted voluntary restrictions, she said she hopes residents will pace themselves when tackling laundry that piled up over the past month and resist drawing deep baths.

“You can use your water regularly indoors,” Ms. Gondek said. “But I’m appealing to people’s good sense to ease into what they normally would be doing.”

Businesses, including those with car washes and indoor pools, can also return to normal water use, said Sue Henry, chief of the Calgary Emergency Management Agency.

Calgary is tracking expenses tied to the infrastructure failure and repair effort, which involved ripping up part of the Trans-Canada Highway, but Ms. Gondek refused to provide any insight on the running total.

“Talking about the numbers at this point would not be useful to anyone,” she said. “We don’t want to just give you snapshots in time, because the questions will be: ‘What did you spend it on, and what was that for, and is there anything remaining?’

“We want to be able to give you a full picture and be able to tell you how that money was spent.”

The Bearspaw South Feedermain, which was installed in 1975, was designed to last 100 years. After the initial rupture, the city collected data that indicated five other spots on the prestressed concrete cylinder pipe were at risk of catastrophic failure if not immediately repaired.

That forced the city, on June 14, to predict water restrictions could stretch another three to five weeks, which would have overlapped with the Calgary Stampede. Officials, on June 19, tightened the timeline to July 5, aligning with the first day of the 10-day festival.

Ric McIver, Alberta’s Minister of Municipal Affairs, said on Tuesday that he expects Calgary to ask the province for money, but he was not prepared to make any promises.

“Nobody has enough money, including municipalities,” he said. The former Calgary city councillor said he recalls the city having a “robust” rate structure for utilities such as water and wastewater, as well as a “pretty respectable” capital replacement program.

Ms. Gondek said it does not make sense to ask the province for money until Calgary has calculated the final bill. The city’s legal team is exploring whether insurance will cover some of the expenses, she said, but the Calgary Emergency Management Agency did not have an update on that effort.

The busted pipe essentially cut off access to the Bearspaw Water Treatment Plant, leaving the city reliant on the older Glenmore Water Treatment Plant for potable water. Officials plan to slow down production at the Glenmore facility in order to catch up on maintenance, while turning up the dial at the Bearspaw plant now that the feedermain is repaired. The pipe was operating at about 50-per-cent capacity on Tuesday.

After the feedermain broke, Calgary banned outdoor water use and requested residents cut indoor consumption by a quarter, suggesting people take shorter showers and occasionally skip flushing the toilet. Some businesses were also asked to trim or halt water use.

Calgary wanted to keep water consumption below 480 million litres per day in order to maintain a sufficient reserve of water for fighting fires. Water consumption during the restrictions peaked June 27, at 500 million litres, compared with the five-year average for that day of 544 million litres. The city did not release consumption data for July 1.