Water usage in Calgary and area crept into the red zone on Sunday, with consumption at 504 million litres.
It was the first day during water restrictions implemented a week ago that consumption on any one day was in the red zone, which the city says in a statement it expected.
“We had a strong start to water savings in week one of planned reinforcement work on the Bearspaw South Feeder Main,” said the city’s statement. “Collectively, we kept our use under 500 million litres and in the green zone for the first six days.”
Two major events contributed to unexpected water use.
On Friday a water main break affecting Spruce Cliff and parts of Wildwood and Rosscarrock resulted in a boil water advisory, which was lifted only after crews flushed water through pipes and fire hydrants over several days, using about two million litres of water.
Monday morning, crews responded to a major fire in the southeast, that took an estimated seven million litres of water to fight.
“It’s situations like these that show why it’s critical to have flexibility in our water system,” reads the city's statement. “Because of your strong water saving efforts over the past week, our system and underground storage had enough capacity to respond to these two issues while maintaining essential services.”
“Heading into week two, we’re encouraging Calgarians, along with our neighbours in Airdrie, Chestermere, Strathmore and Tsuut’ina Nation, to keep up their water saving actions and help us start a new “Green” streak.”
With the Bearspaw South Feeder Main out of service, the city reminds to flush toilets only when needed; keep showers to three minutes or less and; run dishwashers and washing machines only with full loads over the next three weeks of restrictions.
The city says draining of the pipe is complete and reinforcement work remains on schedule.
“Crews have finished excavating the pipe and supports have been installed around all pipe segments. The first two concrete encasement pours began Monday, with more planned across additional segments this week. The concrete requires two days to set before crews can start backfilling the area around the pipe.”
There continues to be active construction and traffic accommodations near worksites.
Road closures and detours and all other information can be found at calgary.ca/savewater.
