No issues have been reported in the Bearspaw water main, hours after the City of Calgary gradually increased pressure to 70 per cent.
However, there was an additional pipeline wire snap detected just before the additional tap was turned on, said Francois Bouchart, director of capital priorities and investments, in Tuesday’s 2 p.m. update.
On Monday, the City of Calgary said it was taking a calculated risk in moving forward with the increase in capacity from 55 per cent to 70 per cent, hoping by Thursday to move back to Stage 2 outdoor water restrictions. Stage 2 restrictions would allow some outdoor watering with a hose or sprinkler, but on select days and only for an hour a week.
“So far, the water flow has increased, and as of this afternoon, we have not detected any issues within the pipe that might halt our progress,” Bouchart said.
“This is good news in our path to stabilizing the pipe at 70 per cent of water flow and potentially moving to stage two outdoor water restrictions.”
With the additional wire snap, the total is now at four since they’ve re-established water service in the Bearspaw feeder main. Again, it was detected prior to the additional water capacity being added to the system.
“We have not detected any snaps since the pump was started yesterday afternoon. This could change, and if it does, it could impact our ability to move to stage two restrictions and beyond,” Bouchart said.
Bouchart said that 558 million litres of water was used on Monday, and with the upcoming warmer weather, they expect usage to spike once again. When the weather was hot last week, they anticipated that moving to Stage 2 restrictions would add demand of up to 75 million litres of water on the system.
‘Tens of millions’ in repair costs
During Tuesday’s public hearing meeting of council, Ward 2 Coun. Jennifer Wyness asked city administration how much has been spent thus far on the water main situation.
Infrastructure Services GM Michael Thompson said they could pull together the costs, including overtime and there would be a breakdown of the cost of the initial repair and one for the five hotspots detected afterwards.
“I can tell you the costs for the repairs is in the tens of millions of dollars, not larger than that,” Thompson said.
Thompson also said there are contingencies available to cover the repair costs. The City of Calgary’s water services does have a reserve fund. Further, any water services costs are typically cover through water rates charged to customers of the City of Calgary.
They will also be meeting further to determine a long-term rehabilitation plan, which will have an additional cost.
Ward 1 Coun. Sonya Sharp said she wasn’t surprised by the initial estimate from GM Thompson.
“We’re talking about critical infrastructure that provides water to our city,” she said.
“It’s nice to maybe hear we’re estimating high and you come in lower, but this has to be transparent. Critical infrastructure around this city probably needs some repairs.”
Mayor Jyoti Gondek said she expected more clarity soon on the costs as there was still further information to be calculated.
“I keep asking the question of when is the information going to be available to us? I will continue to ask that question,” the mayor said.
“As soon as we have a response for you, we’ll make sure that that information is made public.”
Coun. Sharp also said that she’ll be asking for an update from Chief Administrative Officer David Duckworth on the planned third-party review of the water main break. It’s expected that the update will come Wednesday morning.
Mayor Gondek said that she’s hoping to hear that city admin recognizes that independence on the review is required and that it will result in a recruitment firm being hired to find people for the review panel.
“I think the sooner that the CAO can extract himself from this process, the better off we are,” the mayor said.
“However, he is the leader of this organization, and it is his responsibility to kick off the way that we would do this independent review so we will see what he has to say.”
