Mayor Farkas says Calgary’s water system safe, pledges accountability following another major water main break

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In the wake of a second significant water main break in northwest Calgary in less than two years, Mayor Jeromy Farkas tried to assure Calgarians that the water system is safe.

But he also promised to bring some measure of “accountability” following more trouble with the Bearspaw south feeder main, which was the source of a catastrophic break in 2024.

“Yes, the system is safe, but there’s a lot of work that needs to be done around accountability,” Farkas told CBC Radio’s Calgary Eyeopener Wednesday.

“We’re doing everything that we can as well to ensure stability and continuity for the impacted residents and businesses and as we find out more information.”

Firefighters and police responded Tuesday evening to significant flooding beneath the CPKC rail bridge near 69th Street N.W.

Thirteen people had to be rescued from seven vehicles that got caught in the torrent of water.

Early Wednesday morning, the city issued boil water advisories for parts of Parkdale, Montgomery and Point McKay communities as well.

The city has called a media update for 10 a.m. on Wednesday.

A map showing a section of northwest Calgary under a boil water advisory — Parts of the communities of Parkdale, Montgomery and Point McKay are under a boil water advisory after Tuesday’s major water main break. (City of Calgary )

“I want to reassure Calgarians that we have an incredible team of first responders, frontline staff who have been working around the clock,” Farkas said.

He said the city’s focus in the immediate aftermath of the main break was around public safety, adding that around 2,000 homes and 100 businesses have been affected.

But he said there are also “bigger picture” challenges that need to be addressed.

“This is not the first time that this has happened — I think Calgarians are going to be asking a lot of questions,” he said.

“And we’re going to be pushing hard to make sure that the immediate issues are mitigated. But we also have a plan going forward for how to fix this in the long term.”

To that end, Farkas said he’s expecting the recommendations of an independent review of the 2024 water main break to be released in the coming weeks.

“It’ll have a number of recommendations, and our council is absolutely committed to actioning all of those recommendations to ensure that on the go-forward, that this doesn’t happen again.”