More repairs needed on critical water main over the next 3 to 5 weeks.
Additional inspections of the critical water main that supplies drinking water to much of the city indicate that there are several locations that are at high risk of a break. Five locations in particular are in critical condition and require urgent repair.
Repairs to these additional locations are expected to take 3 to 5 weeks to complete.
We will be counting on everyone to continue to pull together to reduce our water use by 25%.
Mandatory Stage 4 outdoor water restrictions are in place. We need to ask everyone to continue to avoid using City water for all outdoor uses, and to keep conserving indoor water use until the repairs are complete.
Please reduce your water usage wherever possible. All outdoor water use is temporarily banned under Stage 4 Water Restrictions. At this time:
Every time you take a shower, flush the toilet, or wash vegetables you have the opportunity to conserve water.
Saving water in the bathroom. More water is consumed in the bathroom than all of your other rooms combined. Here are some ways to reduce water use:
Saving water in the kitchen.
Inspections demonstrate that there are multiple locations in the water main that are at high risk of a break if it were refilled with water.
Five "hot spots" in particular are in critical condition and require urgent repair.
The hot spots cannot safely withstand the amount of pressure we need to run through the water feeder main. If City crews were to complete current repairs and restore water to the feeder main without making the repairs, we would be at high risk of an additional catastrophic break.
The City is actively looking at ways to speed the work up but not at the risk of public health, safety or material and resource quality. More information will be provided over the next few days as plans are finalized.
An additional 300-meter section of the pipe is still full of water and has not yet been assessed. It is being drained and checked to see if there are any additional hot spots that need to be fixed immediately.
We still need to conserve water. We will run out of water without reducing use.
The City is contacting large industrial and commercial customers and asking them to find ways to modify or stop some of their operations to reduce water use.
Calgarians have responded to calls to conserve water by reducing their use — thank you! We need to continue these efforts for the coming weeks.
4.3 km of the pipe has been inspected, and it is data from this inspection that located the five additional critical locations.
These five "hot spots" are located southeast of the current break before the Shaganappi pump station. This station is located in North Edworthy park at the bottom of Shaganappi Trail.
As shown in the pictures below, this type of pipe is made up of 4.8 meter sections that contain an inner layer of wire that is coiled within the concrete. The steel wire wraps approximately 350 times - like a slinky – around each pipe segment.
This wire provides important structural stability for the pipe to help it manage high water pressure.
As the pipe ages, it is normal for some of the wires to break without compromising the integrity of the pipe. However, it becomes problematic as the number of breaks increases.
As we saw with our current break, when the wire breaks in multiple places, it weakens the pipe and can lead to a catastrophic pipe failure.
The degree of breakage we are seeing in these sections of pipe requires emergency repair.
The Calgary Stampede's team is meeting to discuss contingency plans. As they just received this news this evening, further details aren't available at this time.
Thanks again for your continued efforts. I know these conditions aren't ideal, but I have been continuously impressed by Calgarians and their ability to respond to this difficult situation. Thank you.
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