Hi everyone, Mark Iype in Edmonton today.
It’s been two weeks since Calgary officials discovered a major water main break that has forced Alberta’s largest city and surrounding areas to curb water use.
Repairs are well underway, but it will still be weeks before things return to normal, potentially affecting one of Canada’s most popular summer festivals: the Calgary Stampede.
On Monday, Stampede officials said the plan is to carry on as scheduled, and there are contingencies in place in case the Bearspaw South Feedermain is still out of service when things kick off on July 5.
“The show will go on, but it will go on in a very responsible manner,” said Stampede chief executive officer Joel Cowley.
He said the Stampede will truck in treated water from outside Calgary to the grounds to support both livestock and attendees, and use non-potable water for other uses. And “conservation measures” will be enforced where the local water system is needed.
The 10-day Stampede has “$282-million of economic impact generated for the province of Alberta,” according to officials, and draws well over one million people to the grounds every summer.
Residents of Calgary and surrounding communities such as Airdrie, Chestermere and Strathmore have been under mandatory and voluntary water restrictions since the original blowout on June 5, which led to a state of emergency in Calgary.
The main rupture in the pipe has now been fixed, but there are five other “hot spots” that still need to be repaired. Replacement pipe is expected to arrive from San Diego on Tuesday evening, which will then be used to mend two of the defective spots, Michael Thompson, general manager of Calgary’s infrastructure services, told reporters at the daily update. He said the pipes then need to be sandblasted and epoxied before installation.
“On Friday, we communicated that an additional three to five weeks are required to support the repair of the hotspots. This timeline remains, and we are committed to provide an updated schedule for the construction by the end of the week,” Thompson said.
Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek said crews are working around the clock to cut down that timeline.
“We’re doing everything we can to make sure we shorten the timelines for this repair, but we have to make sure that this is all done in a safe manner,” she said. “Until those hotspots are fixed and water is moving safely through our city, through that major transmission line, we all need to keep doing our part.”
The mayor also announced Tuesday that a third-party review led by experts in water, engineering and infrastructure will determine what contributed to the original pipe breach, identify current practices for inspection and make recommendations to improve water supply resilience.
“Like all of you, I want it to get to the bottom of what happened,” Gondek said.
As The Globe argued in its editorial Tuesday, understanding what happened is important with 1.6 million people forced to take short showers and water their plants with leftover pasta water.
Calgarians are owed “a clear and full explanation of what the city currently knows about the cause of the catastrophe.”
This is the weekly Western Canada newsletter written by B.C. Editor Wendy Cox and Alberta Bureau Chief Mark Iype. If you’re reading this on the web, or it was forwarded to you from someone else, you can sign up for it and all Globe newsletters here.
Wendy Cox