Water use continues to climb in Calgary Saturday, eastbound 16 Ave. to reopen Monday

Water use rose Saturday to 495 million litres in Calgary, which is asking residents to conserve water after a major water-main break last Tuesday.

Calgary water consumption continued to move in the wrong direction Saturday, despite the messaging efforts of city officials.

Consumption rose on Saturday to 495 million litres, a little bit higher than the 493 million litres residents used on Friday.

That was up 20 million litres from Thursday, when consumption was 473 million litres.

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 ‘catastrophic’ water-main break of part of the Bearspaw feeder main.

“We still have an urgent need to reduce our water use so that we can make sure we all have enough while the feeder main is being repaired,” said Calgary emergency management agency chief Susan Henry.

“We are asking everyone – regardless of what part of the city you are in, to help conserve water so that access to drinking water is preserved while we continue to make repairs on the feeder main.

“Taking simple steps can add up to make a difference.”

Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas posted the latest data early Sunday morning, showing a graph where water consumption is sitting in the yellow, or ‘strained’ zone, on the cusp of entering the red, or ‘unsustainable’ one.

“Water use saw an uptick, putting further strain on the system,” Farkas posted. “Please keep conserving while crews work 24/7. Shorter showers, flush when needed, delay laundry and dishwashers, avoid outdoor use, and only use what you need: everything helps!

Eastbound lane on 16 Ave. N.W. to reopen

Sunday afternoon, the city announced that a single eastbound lane on 16 Ave. N.W. will reopen to traffic east of Sarcee Trail N.W.

Access to eastbound 16 Ave. N.W. from Sarcee will also be reopened during this time.

Westbound traffic on 16 Ave. N.W. between 49 Street N.W. and Sarcee Trail Trail N.W. remains closed.

The city said water has been removed from the site and the damaged section has been excavated. Crews are moving into the pipe removal phase of the repair, which is expected to start Sunday afternoon.

Friday, water consumption landed the city in the green, or ‘sustainable’ zone.

At Saturday’s media update, city officials expressed concern about water consumption on Monday.

“We know Monday will be a big day with people returning to work and school,” said Calgary Emergency Management Agency Chief.

“We still have an urgent need to reduce our water use so that we can make sure we all have enough while the feeder main is being repaired,” said Henry, in a media release.

“We are asking everyone – regardless of what part of the city you are in, to help conserve water so that access to drinking water is preserved while we continue to make repairs on the feeder main.

“Taking simple steps can add up to make a difference.”

Henry also expressed concerns about Monday morning’s commute on 16 Avenue N.W., which remains closed in both directions between Home Road and Sarcee Trail. For more information, go here.

The City of Calgary’s Michael Thompson, general manager of infrastructure services, said he expects the current repairs to take around 14 days -- and that the city is looking elsewhere across the system to make sure there are no other problem areas.

He said the short-term fix is to repair the existing pipe and long-term, the plan is to install an almost six-kilometre-long steel line.

“As we’ve heard, this is a problem that has been in the making for generations,” Thompson said.

“We’ve relied too heavily on one piece of infrastructure to move the majority of our city’s water, and we need to replace that with a new pipe and really think about redundancy across our system.”

“We talked about that last year after we learned about this -- we’re focused on building redundancy across our system -- and we need to be looking at that as we go forward.”

Farkas said the city council was united in its determination to get it right this time.

“We will spare no expense to fix this – not just for today, not for tomorrow, but for the next 100 years," Farkas said.

“Under our council term, we will fix this and we will fix it for good.

“Our first budget adjustment cycle called for dedicated streams of tens of millions of dollars for brand new infrastructure maintenance funding. It also called for about a billion dollars of investment – not just specific to this, but elsewhere in the city," he said.

“We will do it faster and get it done right this time so that Calgarians will never have to worry about something so fundamental as clean, safe drinking water ever again, under our watch, for the next 100 years.”

The city remains under Stage 4 Water Restrictions.

A Boil Water Advisory issued for the communities of Parkdale, Montgomery, Point McKay and West Hillhurst was lifted Sunday evening.

A notice from the City of Calgary said anyone who has not used their household water system in the past 24 hours is advised to flush systems prior to initial use.

You can flush your system by running the bathtub on cold for 10 minutes and then running all other faucets in the home on cold for five minutes.