Calgary banned outdoor water use and asked residents and businesses to cut use by a quarter while it repairs 21 pipe segments at eight work sites on the Bearspaw South Feeder Main.Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press
Calgary will run out of clean water by the end of September if residents in the city and neighbouring communities do not cut consumption while crews work to repair a crucial but troublesome pipe, officials warned Friday.
Michael Thompson, the city’s general manager of infrastructure services, pleaded with Calgarians to reduce water use ahead of the Labour Day long weekend, with Environment Canada forecasting the temperature to climb to 31 degrees Celsius on Monday. Calgary water users consumed 487 million litres on Thursday, he said, which is down from prior days but above the city’s target of 450 million litres.
“If we continue at the current rate, we will run out of water before repairs are complete,” Mr. Thompson said at an update Friday afternoon.
Calgary banned outdoor water use and asked residents and businesses to cut use by a quarter while it repairs 21 pipe segments at eight work sites on the Bearspaw South Feeder Main, which typically ferries about 60 per cent of the water consumed in Calgary, Airdrie, Chestermere, Strathmore and Tsuut’ina Nation. The restrictions kicked off Monday and will stay in place until the work is complete, expected by Sept. 23.
The pipe suffered a catastrophic failure in June. Calgary imposed restrictions during those emergency repairs and the voluntary indoor restrictions were lifted July 2, although outdoor limits lasted longer. The city reimposed the stricter rules after inspections revealed a number of spots at risk of failure if not addressed.
“Without water restrictions, we would have run out of water by now,” Mr. Thompson said.
Calgary stores treated water in a number of underground reservoirs, but with the Bearspaw Feeder Main out of service, the city is reliant on just one of its two water-treatment plants. The Glenmore facility, Mr. Thompson said, is working overtime and is at risk of failure if demand does not ease.
Calgary on Friday morning received 76 reports of people using outdoor sprinklers, according to Cheryl Townsend, Calgary’s inspector of community standards. This violates the outdoor water restrictions and the cases have a high likelihood of resulting in fines of $3,000 each, she said.
“This is in line with the seriousness of the situation and the need for public compliance,” Ms. Townsend said.
Calgary 311 this week received 278 calls related to misuse of water and 172 calls regarding water main leaks or breaks, water restrictions, water quality, water outage, water pressure issues and water construction inquiries. Ms. Townsend said 56 of the complaints were tied to commercial or industrial properties.
The Bearspaw Feeder Main is a pre-stressed concrete cylinder pipe, which is known to be vulnerable to major failures, although its engineering has improved since the late 1970s. Calgary’s potable water network, which consists of 5,385 kilometres of pipeline, contains 187 kilometres of pipe similar to the Bearspaw Feeder Main.
A Globe and Mail review found nearly 25 per cent of potable water pipes in Canada’s largest cities are nearing the end of their lives and have not been properly maintained. Part of a neighbourhood in Montreal flooded earlier this month when a similar water main busted.
Francois Bouchart, Calgary’s director of capital priorities and investment, said crews are currently excavating nine segments. Digging at the first four spots should be complete by Sept. 3. The material necessary for concrete encasement started arriving at the sites Friday, he said.
Calgary and the communities that rely on its water-treatment facilities typically consume about 600 million litres of water a day at this time of year.