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Calgary city council is set to receive a report on Tuesday evening about an independent review of the 2024 “catastrophic” feeder main break, one week after a second break occurred on the same pipe in the city’s northwest.
Mayor Jeromy Farkas said a special council meeting has been scheduled for Wednesday to publicly discuss the report, which will cover what went wrong in the 2024 break and why.
A 600-page report was presented to city council last December that detailed what led to the pipe’s deterioration and failure, but it received some criticism for not providing a clearer answer for how a similar problem could be avoided in the future.
Farkas said he’ll be looking to see what steps this latest report recommends that the city can act on swiftly to procure a replacement pipe.
“We need to get through the immediate emergency. We need to, in the next two years or less, stick the landing on this replacement pipe. And then we also need to be looking at some of the people and organizational elements,” Farkas said on CBC Radio’s Alberta at Noon on Tuesday.
A water main break in Calgary’s Bowness neighbourhood on Dec. 30 led to significant flooding, ongoing water restrictions, and a boil-water advisory for several northwest communities, which was lifted on Sunday.
Drone footage shows crews working to repair a major water main break in northwest Calgary.
Despite the restrictions, Calgary’s water usage remained at an unsustainable level on Monday, with the city reporting that 514 million litres were used. The total is 29 million litres more than Calgary’s daily water use goal, a threshold it sets to ensure water is available for consumption, emergency response and firefighting.
More communication on water restrictions needed
Farkas said more work is required to communicate to Calgarians the need for ongoing water conservation, and that more value should be placed on water as a resource.
“For us to manage this sick, this terminally ill pipe, we’re going to need to be much more proactive and preventative in terms of, say, reducing the flow of water through it on an ongoing basis, proactive shutdowns in the spring and the fall,” said Farkas.
“We will be getting back to a little bit of a sense of normalcy, but we can’t be complacent. This can continue to break today, tomorrow, next week, next month.”
Calgarians talk about the importance of voluntary water restrictions after a massive water main break last week that has put pressure on the city’s water supply.
The boil-water advisory lifting on Sunday night could have been a factor in Calgarians’ water usage on Monday. The city recommended that households in northwest neighbourhoods like Parkdale, Montgomery, Point McKay and West Hillhurst that had been under the advisory should fill bathtubs for 10 minutes, followed by running all other faucets for five minutes.
Officials are continuing to urge Calgarians to run dishwashers and laundry only when full, to only flush toilets when necessary, and not to shower for longer than three minutes. Farkas added that city staff are being encouraged to work from home if possible, and he’s encouraging local businesses to do the same.
Farkas reiterated that proactive shutdowns of the water main in the spring for more maintenance work will be needed.
He added that as Calgary’s population nears two million, it’s increasingly important for the city to ensure more of its water is kept in its pipes, so the city can draw less from its rivers. The mayor said municipalities around Alberta with infrastructure gaps face a similar challenge as the province’s population booms.
City data shows Calgary lost nearly a quarter of its treated water supply in 2024 due to leaky pipes. It then launched an accelerated water loss program to keep more of its water.
Michael Thompson, Calgary’s general manager of infrastructure services, explains how the city receives its water from two ‘small rivers’ and the risks that brings as crews rush to fix the latest water main break. For example, the city needs to keep enough water in the Glenmore Reservoir until spring as the nearby water plant pumps out three times its normal winter production to maintain the water supply for Calgarians during repairs.
A new section of the broken feeder main was delivered to the construction site on Tuesday, and its installation is scheduled to start after an inspection is completed. The city said it’s focused on investigating the pipe’s condition on either side of the break on Tuesday and Wednesday, and its assessment will inform future repairs to the water main.
The city is also preparing to bring a different feeder main, located at Memorial Drive and 52nd Street N.E., back into service. Flushing of that feeder main was scheduled to begin on Tuesday and last for a few days, to ensure water inside the pipe is safe to drink. The city said bringing this pipe back into service will help improve water delivery around Calgary.
The Bearspaw South Feeder Main’s replacement project is scheduled to start this spring.
Temporary water interruption in Bowness
The city has scheduled a temporary water service interruption in Bowness beginning Wednesday morning for two days. It said it will affect 30 homes and one business along 48th Avenue and 33rd Avenue N.W. The interruption is due to crews inspecting the feeder main in the area, as crews must drain a section of the pipe to ensure they can enter it safely.
The city said it will directly notify people who will be affected by the water interruption.
