The City of Calgary is hoping the Sunday run-up of water use was just a blip on an otherwise exceptional string of water-hero-type days.

On Sunday, Calgary and area water users were at 504 million litres of water, which is above the mandated daily water use limit the City of Calgary has set out during the repairs of the older Bearspaw South feeder main.

Infrastructure Services GM Michael Thompson reassured that one day in the “risky red zone” would be OK.

“Sundays are often higher-use days as people do laundry and cleaning and get ready for the week ahead,” he said.

“We get it, and one day in the red does not undo the excellent work we all did through last week.”

Residents in Calgary, Strathmore, Chestermere, Airdrie, and Tsuut’ina went for a week under the 500 million litres of daily water use, averaging around 485 million litres.

Not so on Sunday.

“We still have three weeks to go before the feeder main is back in service,” Thompson said.

“So, today I want to ask you to start week two strong.”

Thompson did note that the weekend boil water advisory in the southwest required two million litres of water be flushed through the water system as water quality was brought back up to snuff.

He also said that a large fire in the southeast required seven million litres of water to douse.

“These are the kinds of situations that make it so important that we have a sufficient supply of treated water in our underground storage tanks,” Thompson said.

“Because of the actions that you took last week to save water, we had enough available in our underground storage tanks to deal with these two issues. But it’s a reminder of why it’s so important to keep up our everyday water saving and keep our underground storage tanks full.”

Work continues full steam ahead

Despite some weather woes over the past week, Thompson said that work continues to move forward on schedule.

Nine segments of the Bearspaw South feeder main are having concrete reinforcement done over through March and into April.

“Crews have completed excavation to expose the pipe, and trench boxes are now installed around all pipe segments to support the work safely,” Thompson said.

“The first two concrete encasement pours began today. If everything continues as planned, concrete will be poured across additional pipe segments throughout the week.”

Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas once again thanked citizens in Calgary and the surrounding area for their efforts to conserve water.

“Now I know this has been inconvenient. Nobody likes being asked to change their daily routine, and I know for many families and businesses, these restrictions can be these restrictions can be frustrating,” he said.

“I want to emphasize something important, we are making real progress. This planned shutdown is part of a larger effort to stabilize and reinforce the existing pipe so we can continue operating safely until the new feeder main is completed later this year. That replacement line will permanently solve the vulnerability we discovered after the first rupture in 2024.”