CALGARY
CBC
Thu, June 13, 2024
Work was paused at the site of a water main break after two people were injured. (Monty Kruger/CBC - image credit)
Fully restoring Calgary's water service will take longer than expected, but exactly how long is still undetermined.
Work to fix a feeder main break that triggered citywide water restrictions last week can now resume after two workers were injured at the site.
At around 9:45 p.m. Wednesday, a contractor was welding to install the metal collar on the new section on the pipe. While doing that, a chain broke and caused injuries.
Alberta's Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) was called in. The provincial agency determines when work can resume.
"Keeping our employees safe is a core value of the city," said Christopher Collier, the City of Calgary's occupational health and safety director.
"There are safety protocols for returning the site to operations and this has been underway since the clearance was provided by OHS Alberta."
The site was green lit for welding activities at around 10:45 a.m. Thursday. That work is expected to resume in the afternoon.
The Bearspaw south water main, which is 11 kilometres long and as wide as two metres in parts, suffered a break on June 5 that temporarily left hundreds of homes and businesses in the city's northwest without water.
The Bearspaw south water main, which is 11 kilometres long and as wide as two metres in parts, suffered a break that left hundreds of homes and businesses in the city's northwest without water.
Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek said work to repair a critical water main break was halted after two workers were injured Wednesday night. (City of Calgary)
Conservation remains critical
In an update on Wednesday — a week after the main failed — officials told Calgarians they can expect water restrictions to continue into the middle of next week.
Gondek said water consumption has crept up again, this time by nine million litres, taking the city far above the safe threshold.
"I now must ask you to do more on your water conservation to support those that are working to restore our safe water supply," Gondek said Thursday.
Water supply is also lower than it has been over the past few days.
"This morning, we were at a place where we don't have enough of a cushion for emergencies," Gondek said. She said emergencies include things like water used in hospitals and for firefighting.
The City of Calgary said the first cuts to the damaged pipe were made over the weekend.
The Bearspaw south water main, which is 11 kilometres long and as wide as two metres in parts, suffered a break that left hundreds of homes and businesses in the city's northwest without water.. (City of Calgary)
On Wednesday night, firefighters battled a two-alarm fire in the southwest neighbourhood of Woodbine.
Sue Henry, chief of the Calgary Emergency Management Agency (CEMA), said crews used around 100,000 litres to put out the blaze.
In comparison, she said, a fire of that size would typically require between 600,000 and 1.5 million litres of water.
"This is a great reminder for us to ensure our first responders have the water that they need to respond to public health and safety situations while we are all making this effort to conserve water," Henry said.
Mandatory Stage 4 water restrictions that were implemented when the feeder main broke last Wednesday are still in place and the city is still under a fire ban that extends to propane and gas fires.
To date, there have been 1,250 bylaw calls for water misuse and 90 calls for fire ban violations. In response, 376 written warnings were issued. As well, two tickets were handed out for water violations — both to private construction contractors.One ticket was issued related to the fire ban.
Making progress on repairs
Before the work stoppage on Wednesday night, progress had been made on fixing the broken infrastructure. A new section for the feeder main pipe was lowered into place at the site near Home Road and 16th Avenue N.W. in Montgomery.
The removed pipe was transported to another location for failure analysis. The city said it is looking at the information collected and will use that for plans going forward.
An inspection of the rest of the feeder main pipe is ongoing. More than four kilometres, or 80 per cent, is complete, according to Francois Bouchart, the director of capital priorities and investment with the city's infrastructure services department.
But it will still be a while before the city figures out exactly what led to the pipe breaking.
"I want to stress that it will take us time to determine the exact cause. We have a team of engineers analyzing and interpreting the data," Bouchart said.
"Our focus remains on the repair crew safety and our path to restoring water."
Work to resume on Calgary water pipe after injuries; consumption continues to rise
The Canadian Press
Thu, June 13, 2024
CALGARY — Repairs to a fractured Calgary water pipe were to resume Thursday after two workers were injured at the site, while the city's mayor pleaded with residents to step up their conservation efforts.
Chris Collier, the city's director of occupational safety, said welding the replacement pipe into place would continue after provincial officials gave the all-clear Thursday morning.
"This morning, (Occupational Health and Safety) Alberta determined welding work could continue," he said.
The workers were taken to hospital Wednesday night and one remained there with serious but non-life-threatening injuries.
Infrastructure director Francois Bouchard said the injuries are likely to delay the repairs by a day or two. Previous estimates suggested repairs would be complete by the middle of next week.
Meanwhile, Mayor Jyoti Gondek continued to plead with Calgarians to conserve water after recent days saw consistent increases in consumption.
"That is taking us far above the safety threshold," she said. "This morning, we were at a place where we really didn't have enough of a cushion for lifesaving efforts like those in hospitals and firefighting."
Gondek said daily water use increased by another eight million litres on Wednesday. That would bring the city's consumption up to 490 million litres -- well above Saturday's 440-million-litre mark.
"We have to be doing this together," she said. "This is not a joke and it is certainly not a conspiracy. It is serious."
That warning became reality Wednesday night when firefighters responded to a call. Emergency management chief Sue Henry said early response allowed crews to extinguish the blaze with 100,000 litres of water instead of the average requirement of up to 1.5 million litres.
"This is a great reminder to ensure that our first responders have the water that they need," she said.
Bouchard said the seven-metre replacement length of pipe was in place and that a robot inspection device had checked out about four kilometres of line -- about 80 per cent of that section of pipe, which carries 60 per cent of the city's water.
"This experience has led us to do further tests to look at the condition of the pipe now that it has been drained for the repair," he said.
All residents have been asked to cut their water usage at home with measures like shorter showers and fewer toilet flushes. A mandatory ban was ordered on outdoor watering, window washing and fires.
Bouchard said the city does have the power to restrict indoor water use.
"We don't want to unnecessarily impact people's livelihoods," he said. "However, we are prepared to take more firm measures if consumption levels require it."
The break occurred June 5, making Thursday Calgary's eighth day of restrictions.
A seven-metre section of replacement pipe, big enough in diameter for a car to drive through, arrived on the site Tuesday.
Installing and welding the new pipe into place was expected to take about two days. Flushing and filling the pipe will take another three. Finally, readying the new section of pipe for water flow into the city's underground reservoirs will take two days.
City officials have said the pipe was 49 years into its expected 100-year life and there was no indication from any of the city's monitoring that the pipe was about to fail. Modelling of pipe stresses, including factors like age, pipe materials and operating pressures, didn't suggest an inspection was needed, Bouchard said.
The pipe was running within its pressure limits. Acoustic monitors, designed to detect early signs of failure, revealed none.
Bouchard said physically inspecting the pipe would have required shutting it down and digging it up, putting stress on both it and other pipes in the system.
Henry said bylaw officers were taking an "education approach" to calls about improper water use.
She said the city had received 1,250 such calls. Officers had issued 376 written warnings, two tickets concerning water and one for fire.
-- By Bob Weber in Edmonton
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 13, 2024.
Calgary mayor stresses water conservation as feeder main repair timeline updated
CBC
Wed, June 12, 2024
Officials say City of Calgary crews are working 24/7 on repairing the water feeder main that plunged the city's water supply into a critical state. (City of Calgary - image credit)
The problem section of the water feeder main that ruptured in Calgary is being repaired, but that doesn't mean water supply worries are ending any time soon.
During a news conference on Wednesday afternoon, city officials continued to urge residents to limit their water use.
Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek spoke Wednesday at the city's regular update on the water main break and said the city's water use Tuesday increased from the day before.
"Preliminary numbers show us that water use yesterday was 480 million litres, which is up slightly from the day before," said Gondek.
"But it's at the threshold that we want to try to maintain. It's also down 100 million litres from our average at this time of year."
An updated repair timeline was released on Tuesday. City officials say work to repair the water main will go into next week.
An updated repair timeline was released on Tuesday. City officials say work to repair the water main will continue into next week. (City of Calgary)
Gondek said the repair plan has three main stages:
Install the new replacement pipe, which will take roughly two days.
Flush the feeder main, removing any leftover water and sediment, which could take up to three days.
Fill the pipe and ready the city's network for water to begin flowing again, which will take about two days.
Officials said Calgarians can expect water restrictions to continue into mid-next week.
Nancy Mackay, director of water services for the City of Calgary, said Wednesday that crews have now inspected 1.8 kilometres of the rest of the pipe.
The section of pipe being replaced is about seven metres long (23.5 feet).
Surrounding towns asked to conserve Calgary water
Calgarians aren't the only ones being asked to limit their use.
The City of Airdrie is one of the municipalities — like Strathmore and Chestermere — that uses Calgary's water supply.
Since the water main break, Airdrie's top 100 water users have been contacted and asked to reduce usage, according to Mayor Peter Brown.
"Everybody's been great so far," Brown said in an interview on the Calgary Eyeopener on Wednesday.
LISTEN | Airdrie's mayor talks conserving water, working with Calgary:
Brown said his community is under Level 4 water restrictions, so outdoor watering is restricted and residents are being asked to be mindful of their indoor water usage. Calgary is under similar restrictions.
He said Airdrie is almost halfway through a 20-year agreement on water sharing with the City of Calgary.
"This isn't over yet," he said. "You've got some awesome people that are working diligently to get this fixed."
As of Friday morning, bylaw officers had attended eight calls for fires and 56 calls for misuse of water, according to the City of Calgary.
Bylaw officers are attending calls for misuse of water, according to the City of Calgary. (Helen Pike/CBC)
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