More than 200 suites without water for days after water main break in south Edmonton

Dozens of tenants of a south Edmonton townhouse complex have been without running water since a water main break on New Year's Day.

More than 200 suites were without water in the new year at a south Edmonton apartment and townhouse complex following a water main break.

South Ridge Apartments and Townhomes is owned and managed by Avenue Living, a rental company with properties all over Canada.

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As of Tuesday morning, water was restored to all suites, said a notice from Avenue obtained by CTV News Edmonton.

“We sincerely appreciate your patience and understanding while we manage this situation, and we thank you for your cooperation throughout the restoration process,” said Avenue.

Earlier notices to residents obtained by CTV News Edmonton show that the water main break occurred on New Year’s Eve. Avenue did not initially provide a date for when the water would be back on, but said it would update residents by 4 p.m. Jan. 2.

Residents were asked to fill their bathtub with water to use for manual toilet flushing and fill kitchen pots and water jugs for cooking and drinking.

A memo sent to residents the following day said the repair was not completed as planned. Residents were provided with one 18-litre water bottle to be returned once water service was restored. If not returned, residents would see a $10 charge to their next month’s rent, said the notice.

Avenue also offered 15 portable toilets in the building’s parking lots for residents to use while water remained unavailable.

One resident said his family hadn’t been using the portable toilets because it’d been too cold.

“Maybe in the summertime it’d be appropriate, but I don’t think anyone’s using it,” said Jeremy Jarvis.

Jarvis, who has five children, said he’d been melting snow for his family to use to manually flush the toilet.

Melissa Zambonelli has lived at South Ridge for the last four years and said this is the first time she’s had to deal with a major maintenance issue.

“It’s been tough trying to figure out whether or not we’re going to cook tonight because of how hard it’s going to be to clean the dishes,” said Zambonelli. “I kind of miss doing dishes right now.”

While Zambonelli has received notices from Avenue keeping her and her roommate updated on the situation, they still don’t know when they’ll have running water.

“I think they could be figuring out whether or not they need to move people to hotels to stay for a little bit until we actually get out water,” said Zambonelli.

Avenue Living did not respond to CTV News Edmonton’s questions about compensating residents for the water main break.

“Resident safety and wellbeing remains our top priority, and we are connecting directly with residents to promptly address any questions and requests,” said Avenue.

Although residents of South Ridge were inconvenienced over the new year – and many still are – Jarvis believes Avenue is doing what they can to get water back on for all.

“The Senior VP of Avenue came and actually gave us some groceries because of our tough time,” he said. “I wouldn’t say they were bad with us … hopefully it was like that with everyone else.”

Resident Rivers Bobbitt said problems like the water main break are bound to happen regardless of where you live.

“Things are going to break and there are going to be problems,” said Bobbitt. “This kind of stuff happens.”

EPCOR said it is supporting Avenue by adjusting the city’s water system to help identify and facilitate repairs.

“For leaks on private property, property managers arrange and manage their own repairs, though EPCOR may provide support to ensure the safe operation of the broader water system,” said EPCOR in an email to CTV News Edmonton.

Still without water as of Monday afternoon, Jarvis is hopeful he and his family, along with the other residents, will be back online today.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Nicole Weisberg