It was a good news morning for the Father’s Day update on the Calgary feeder main break from the mayor, as Calgarians had record low water consumption.

While the mayor reminded citizens that Calgary is operating on a 50 per cent water supply, she said water use dropped to 438 million litres for Saturday. That’s two million litres less than the 440 million low set last Saturday (June 8).

That’s left the City of Calgary in good shape for supply, with 634 million litres as of 6 a.m. Sunday, the mayor said.  That means there’s enough water to meet demand and also protect in the case of an emergency.

“You did better yesterday, and I cannot thank you enough for taking that call to action seriously,” the mayor said.

“I want to thank everybody in Calgary, Airdrie, Tsuut’ina Nation, Strathmore and Chestermere, for all of your efforts. You are very good humans, especially when you consider that a lot of haters and deniers are saying that you’ll give up, you’ll get sick of all of this, and you won’t do your part. I have much more faith in all of you than that.”

The mayor also heralded the rain. According to statistics from Environment and Climate Change Canada, Calgary received roughly 20 mm of rain on Saturday. More is expected on Sunday.

“I received a lot of messages from friends with photos of how they were collecting that water, everything from buckets to milk jugs to rain barrels,” Mayor Gondek said.

“There were a lot of social media posts about Calgarians using ingenious ways to collect water.”

The mayor said they’re collecting water usage mapping from all over Calgary to provide answers to questions on different hotels and other facilities like rec centres and festivals and their water use.

The mayor said they’re also contacting partner organizations and businesses to help them with water conservation at their locations.

Update on water main repairs

Francois Bouchart, director of capital priorities and investments, said that the remaining 300 metres of the Bearspaw feeder main has been inspected and no further hotspots have been found. That means the City of Calgary will be focused on the five remaining fixes (first one has been completed), and that work will begin Monday.

“Yesterday, our crew finished protecting the new segment of pipe from corrosion, and the final inspection of the pipe was completed,” he said.

“Today, crews have removed water from the site due to yesterday’s rain, and we’re now backfilling the site and moving equipment out of the area. This is a major milestone in our response to this drastic break, but the work and continuous collaboration is not yet done.”

Pipes have been sourced, including one from the San Diego Water Authority, who delivered a black spray-painted message of “good luck Calgary” with the shipping of the pipe segment.

With the new repairs beginning, there will be some traffic situations to be aware of. First, the City of Calgary will be opening up one-lane, two-way traffic on 16 Avenue NW. But, with equipment and supplies coming in there will be other road closures along 16 Avenue NW. Citizens can stay on top of changes to traffic in their area by visiting the city’s traffic website.

Water services is also looking at the potential for other options of delivering more water from the Bearspaw plant, including the use of an overland pipe system, the mayor said.

“These are backup plans that we are simply considering right now,” the mayor said.

“We’ll get you more information as we have it, but we can’t make these types of significant decisions based on gut instinct alone.”