‘Thank you Calgary’: Water usage drops into ‘sustainable zone’ overnight

The city says conserving water is the focus after a major main break. Meanwhile, those nearby say resulting road closures are hurting businesses.

Calgarians cut their water consumption on New Year’s Day, much to the gratitude of Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas.

According to the City of Calgary, water usage dropped to 473 million litres of water Thursday.

Chris Huston, Calgary’s manager for drinking water distribution, says the city needs to use below 485 million litres of water every day for several weeks due to Tuesday night’s water-main break.

The city’s recently-elected mayor posted the update on social media early Friday morning.

“Thank you Calgary,” Farkas posted. “We stepped up to conserve water, and it made a real difference.

“We’re now back in the sustainable zone,” he added, “but we’re not out of the woods yet. Please keep conserving as crews continue their work.”

Reduced water capacity

On Thursday, Huston said the loss of the pipeline means that the city has lost 40 per cent of its capacity to move water around.

“It’s not that we don’t have water available from the rivers or from the sources,” he said. “It just makes it difficult to provide water to the whole city.”

Huston said operators are moving the water around differently to ensure everybody has access. “But we do have some asks for you,” he said at a city update on the situation.

Huston said each Calgarian can do their part and save 10 to 30 litres per day by showering for three minutes instead of 10 and only running their washing machines or dishwashers when they are full.

“We don’t want people to stop those things,” Huston said. “We just want you to be conservative as we do those things.”

The conservation efforts aren’t much, he said.

“It becomes a ton of water that we can save,” he said. “That gets us to our target really easily.”

Pipe failed again

The city continues to assess the latest catastrophic break in the Bearspaw Feeder Main that took place Tuesday night.

Tuesday’s break happened in the area of the Sarcee Trail and 16 Avenue N.W. interchange.

It was only a few blocks away from the site of the summer 2024 break.

Back then, the entire length of pipe was inspected.

Michael Thompson, infrastructure services manager, said, “239 deteriorated pipes out of approximately 2,000 four-metre-long pipe segments” and “23 additional segments requiring urgent repair” were identified.

“The feeder main still contains segments with minor to moderate structural deterioration today,” Thompson said on Thursday.

“We completed the 23 urgent repairs in 2024.”

“We understood the pipe would need to continue to operate in its current condition while we developed a plan for a long-term replacement,” he said.

Thompson said that stretch of pipe was being monitored.

“In the two months leading up to Dec. 30, we had not heard a wire snap along the pipe or anything in that area,” he said.

“We don’t know why the pipe failed.”

Blame Nenshi: Smith

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is laying Calgary’s latest water problems squarely at the feet of her chief political rival.

Smith said Friday afternoon that the city failed for years to check on the state of the troubled Bearspaw South Feeder Main dating back to the time Naheed Nenshi was Calgary’s mayor.

Nenshi is now the head of Alberta’s Opposition NDP, and his office did not immediately reply to the criticism.

The feeder main supplies 60 per cent of the treated water for the city.

It ruptured this week for the second time in less than two years, forcing Calgarians and those in surrounding municipalities to once again conserve water while fixes are made.

Smith says her government will look into whether more oversight is needed for municipal water utilities.

With files from CTV’s Damien Wood and The Canadian Press