Progress is being made on reviewing and rejuvenating Calgary’s water infrastructure, city administration said, however, there’s a call for a definitive plan to fix aging pipes.

City administration, Mayor Jyoti Gondek and Couns. Sonya Sharp and Terry Wong held a news conference Thursday afternoon on the first anniversary of one of Calgary’s biggest-ever infrastructure failures, the rupture of the Bearspaw South water feeder main.

Last June, Calgary’s largest feeder main, a 1970s precast concrete line, ruptured, causing widespread flooding in the Bowness and Montgomery areas. It was an emergency that led to a massive disruption in Calgary’s water supply, eventually forcing water rationing for all citizens over the hot summer months.

Nearly 30 repairs were done over the next five months, requiring varying changes to water restrictions in Calgary and for surrounding water customers.

There’s been an internal investigation, and an external review of engineering procedures by the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta. The panel for a third-party, independent review of the incident was recently selected.

Meanwhile, the city has promised a review of water infrastructure and a medium- and long-term plan for its rehabilitation and replacement. Calgary city councillors did approve $1 billion in borrowing during last November’s budget deliberations, to front the cost of water infrastructure, including critical upgrades in some areas.

Infrastructure Services GM Michael Thompson said they’ve been monitoring the repair work they’ve done with an acoustic monitoring system that was installed after the break.  Thus far, the repairs are holding up, Thompson said.

“I’m happy to report that since the monitoring started, we have heard nine wire snaps over the entire length of the pipe,” he said.  

“To put this into context, the length of the pipe we’re monitoring has over half a million wire wraps around it. Therefore, we are happy to report the pipe continues to operate safely, and as expected.”

Thompson also said that further upgrading work is underway on the Bearspaw feeder main, with design underway and construction expected in 2026. The north Calgary water servicing project and south Calgary water servicing project are also in progress, with the north portion ready for construction this year and the south soon to be in design.

“These projects are part of our long-term plan to maintain the reliability of the drinking water system for Calgary and our surrounding communities,” Thompson said.

Mayor Gondek talked about the timeline of events in the aftermath of the break, underscoring the work that went into getting the repairs done and Calgarians’ water back into service.

“While our decisive actions enabled us to address the immediate crisis and restore water service to more than 1.5 million residents in Calgary and surrounding communities, the lessons we’ve learned continue to shape our understanding of how critical it is to care for aging infrastructure since this catastrophic break a year ago,” she said.

Detailed plan for water infrastructure is needed, say councillors

Ward 1 Coun. Sonya Sharp, whose ward covers the community of Bowness, said that there has to be a serious commitment to modernizing Calgary’s water infrastructure. She and Coun. Wong met with the media early Thursday morning.

“What concerns me is that we still haven’t seen a full, costed plan to restore the integrity of our water system, or public confidence in how it’s managed,” she said.

“It’s not just about fixing one pipe. This was a failure in how the system has been managed over decades, by successive councils.”

Coun. Sharp has also consistently pointed out that there are leakage problems in Calgary’s water system, resulting in massive water loss annually.

“Imagine throwing 20 per cent of your water bill into the street. That’s what we’re doing —wasting precious water and taxpayer dollars,” she said.

“We don’t even fully understand the scale of the problem. Council still hasn’t received a plan to fix it.”

GM Thompson did say that a 10-year capital plan is in the works for water infrastructure and should be ready early next year.

Meanwhile, Thompson said they continue to look for the single points of failure in the critical areas where investments are being made, and work to bring additional redundancy to the system.

“The work we’re doing right now on the improvement program on that Bearspaw feeder main, will improve the entire length of that pipe,” he said.

“We don’t have immediate issues with the pipe.”