Work on the Bearspaw south water feeder main break is progressing, said Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas in a post on X Wednesday night, adding Calgarians, as well as residents of Tsuut'ina Nation, Airdrie, Strathmore and Chestermere need to step up on bringing down their water consumption.
“Crews made great progress today!!!,” wrote Farkas. “The new segment of pipe was put into place last night and welding of the new section to the existing pipe was completed today. Back filling of the area around the pipe began this evening. Work is moving in the right direction, but we still need Calgarians to continue to conserve water. Small actions make a big difference. Find out how to save water and stay informed at https://www.calgary.ca/emergencies/feeder-main-repair/bearspaw-water-main-break.html?redirect=/watermainbreak.”
Farkas added work crews “are right now in the trenches as we speak, accelerating as quickly as possible this immediate short-term repair.”
The water supply is at a critical level said Farkas.
“It’s a very finite supply and like a countdown of a clock,” he said. “Once that clock hits zero, we are out of water. Usage remains well above the city's sustainable target. We're in a very dangerous situation where, if current trends continue, we cannot guarantee that the fire department has the amounts of needed water to respond to emergencies.”
“There's more work that we're going to need to be able to do together as a community to rally, through the short term, but also in the long term as we are adjusting to this new reality.”
The city says if every resident saves 25 to 30 litres of water per day, the city will be able to get out of the red zone and into the sustainable zone. Thirty litres is equivalent to one and a half water jugs, says the city, adding a three minute shower instead of five minutes saves 16 litres of water and skipping two toilet flushes saves 12 litres.
“We are entering potentially loss of life territory and we need to ensure enough water and pressure to maintain the ability for our Calgary Fire Department to be able to respond to those life saving calls,” said Farkas in an interview on Wednesday. “I've been crystal clear with Calgarians that this is a new reality that we're living in.”
That reality includes the current fix going on now, with more in the future.
"This is a ticking time bomb under our streets,” said Farkas. “No amount of patchwork fixes will solve this for good. It could break again, next week, next month, next year and that's why we're working as fast as humanly possible, faster than anything we've ever done before to build that replacement line.”
“But before that line is in place in the next two years or so, this is going to be a new reality that we're living in and we have to be prepared to go back to water restrictions again to be able to patch the needed.”
“We have a long-term view for not just the replacement pipe, but to ensure that this doesn't happen again. The only successful outcome in my mind is not just fixing this for today or tomorrow, but it's to fix our water system for the next century so that Calgarians, as we continue to live our lives, we never have to worry about safety on clean drinking water ever again.”
“A giant thank you to Calgarians,” added Farkas. “I know how frustrating this. We should not be in this situation a second time, let alone the first time. I want to say thank you to everybody who stepped up in a big way to support us with these measures. We can get through this. We've gone through harder things before.”
