Water-main break: Boil water advisory, water restrictions issued for northwest communities

A boil water advisory was issued by the City of Calgary early Wednesday morning for communities located near a major water-main break in the northwest.

Alberta Health Services declared the advisory for portions of Parkdale, Montgomery and Point McKay.

Late Wednesday afternoon, West Hillhurst was added to the list.

All residents and businesses are advised to bring all tap water to a rolling boil for a minute prior to consumption, including water used for drinking, brushing teeth, cleaning raw foods, preparing baby formula or juices or making ice.

Water used for bathing or washing clothes doesn’t need to be boiled.

The advisory will remain in effect until further notice.

The city also announced it has enacted its Municipal Emergency Plan and Stage 4 water restrictions for outdoor water use on things such as rinks, snow-making or other large outdoor water usage.

Additionally, the city advised indoor facilities like pools, rinks and rec facilities to implement water reduction plans.

Limit showers

In order to manage water supply, the city is asking residents to limit showers to under three minutes, flush toilets only when necessary and run dishwashers and laundry only when full.

Roughly 3,100 homes and 100 businesses were under the boil water advisory as of Wednesday afternoon.

That doesn’t include the home of Bowness resident Heather Boettcher, but that didn’t stop her from heading to the grocer to stock on up water.

Many others did the same.

“I filled up pots right away and we had bottled water in the garage from last time this happened,” she told CTV News.

“We’re just making sure everything‘s OK.”

“I just hope they can get it figured out,” fellow water buyer Troy said.

“Close it up and fix it up—whatever they need to do.”

16 Avenue N.W. is closed between Sarcee Trail and Home Road.

For more information about the boil water advisory, go here.

For more information about road closures, go here.

Tuesday night

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

It was only a few blocks away from where a catastrophic feeder-main break occurred, crippling the city’s water supply, in summer 2024.

“Given its location and an initial assessment, we expect the break is related to the Bearspaw South feeder main,” the city said in a release.

Water on the road rose almost to the height of its median.

Water could be seen flowing off both sides of the road, taking over pathways and continuing into the park.

Hunter Kunow told CTV News he was driving past when the break happened.

“It was just gushing and the power of water was terrorizing everything,“ he said.

“I don’t know what’s going on with the infrastructure, especially in Bowness, but it’s getting tiring and it’s making you kind of wonder if this is the right place where you want to live.”

Multiple vehicles became stuck and more than a dozen people had to be rescued.

No injuries were reported.

Mayor Jeromy Farkas has been offering updates on social media.

“I have spoken with Premier Danielle Smith and MP Corey Hogan to brief them on the situation,” Farkas wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

“Both have offered their full support, and provincial and federal officials are standing by should additional resources be required. Co-ordination across all orders of government is ongoing.”

Emergency crews continue to assess the cause of the break and the extent of the damage.

‘Status quo is not acceptable’: Farkas

Wednesday morning, Farkas said a second catastrophic break of the city’s primary water line was unacceptable.

“None of this is acceptable to myself and my council colleagues,” Farkas said.

He said the Bearspaw South feeder main needs to be fully replaced and plans are already underway to do that.

“This is an existential challenge, risk and opportunity for the city,” he said.

“We’re on the cusp of being a city of two million people.

“We are going to be relentless and get this done.”

‘Ticking time bomb’: Calgary mayor

Farkas also addressed the issue Wednesday afternoon on CTV National News .

“We’re still in the initial site assessment, but it’s fair to say the situation has been stabilized,” Farkas said.

“We have our emergency crews in there doing assessments and then we’ll be beginning on the timeline for scheduled repairs.”

Farkas said the only long-term answer is to replace the feeder main with a parallel pipe.

“The long-term fix here is to be able to build a completely new parallel line, but until that is completed for us in the next 18 months or so, it’s going to be very touch -and-go with this specific piece of infrastructure,” he said.

“Calgary is essentially sitting on a ticking time bomb with this specific piece of infrastructure. We can patch it all we want, but it doesn’t address the fact that the underlying infrastructure is so prone to failure.

“The only way for us to prevent this happening again in the future is to be able to build that new parallel line.”

Work in progress

Earlier in the media update, Sue Henry, the city’s chief of emergency management, said firefighter crews and police rescued 13 people from eight vehicles on Tuesday night.

Nancy McKay, the city’s director of water services, said the location of the break has already been identified and work is in progress to drain the area around it in order to dig and do repairs.

“It was a catastrophic break along the same feeder main that broke in June 2024,” she said.

“We’re so much further ahead than where we were last time this happened,” Farkas said.

A city official said the broken pipe was not the pipe gifted to the city by San Diego in 2024.

“The San Diego pipe was used in a different area,” he said, explaining the pipe that failed Tuesday night was installed in 1975.

Farkas said Tuesday night’s events don’t mean New Year’s Eve celebrations need to be called off.

“Calgarians should know we can still engage in New Year’s Eve plans,” he said.

With files from The Canadian Press