On day one of Calgary’s Stage 4 outdoor water restrictions, and voluntary indoor restrictions, Calgarians barely made a dent in water usage.

Meanwhile, water flow to the Bearspaw south feeder main was shut off last night and the pipe is being drained, according to the City of Calgary. That is expected to take 24 to 48 hours, the City said. Then, the pipe will be depressurized and work on excavating and repairs will begin.

Water use on Monday was 530 million litres, far above the 450 million litres safe amount set by the City in the three weeks and multiple publicly-available updates leading up to the 21 new repairs on the Bearspaw line.

It’s only 35 million litres less than Saturday’s use of 565 million litres of water, though Sunday it was 656 million litres. That means 80 million litres of water use still needs to be shed within the next three days to ensure Calgary’s water system doesn’t reach a critical level, city officials said.

“While yesterday’s numbers are heading in the right direction, they are not at the level we need to sustain our water supply with the feeder main out of service,” said Infrastructure Services GM Michael Thompson, in Tuesday afternoon’s briefing.

“We simply do not have enough water if we do not lower our water use.”

Once again, the City underscored the impact overuse of water could have on the city’s water supply long term.

“If we consistently use more water than we’re able to supply, our underground water reservoirs will deplete, and there’s a high risk to run out of water,” said Thompson.

How much water does Calgary have?

The Glenmore water treatment plant can produce between 350 to 400 million litres a day. The Bearspaw plant, using the north line, can still contribute up to 130 million litres a day.

Last week, Chris Huston, the City of Calgary’s manager of drinking water distribution, said there’s likely only three to four days of water supply available  at current water use levels (600 million litres) before it triggers a significantly greater chance of localized – and potentially citywide – boil water advisories that would last until next spring.

The mayor urged Calgarians to take steps to reduce water use.

“I will say this again. If we do not reduce our water usage by 25 per cent and stay at that 450 million level, we will be in a lot of trouble. We will run out of water,” said Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek.

“If we run out of water, that means you will turn on your tap and nothing will come out. It will mean that firefighters cannot attend to emergencies without wondering whether the hydrant will turn on.

“We will be in dire straits if we do not start reducing our water usage.”

The mayor went on to say that citizens must band together, as they did in June, in order to bring the water consumption to a sustainable level.

“I’m very confident that we can use those same habits to do the same now by cutting down the length of showers, by flushing the toilet a little bit less often, and making sure we are only doing full loads of laundry and dishes,” she said.  

“The maintenance work on this feeder main is critical to ensure that we do not face another catastrophic break.”