Calgary water crisis: City concerned about high water usage

The City of Calgary is concerned about its residents’ increasing water usage as the recently repaired system is not yet fully operational.

“Yesterday we used 555 million litres and we expect that to increase again today,” said Francois Bouchart, director of capital priorities and investments for the City of Calgary.

On Tuesday, the city reported that all physical repairs have been completed, but workers are still struggling to stabilize the water system, hampering further progress in easing current restrictions.

Watering gardens with a watering can is permitted, but authorities say it is too early to lower outdoor water restrictions to stage 2.

City-operated public outdoor pools, children’s pools, and spray parks are exempt from the Stage 3 outdoor water restrictions.

“We are expanding this exemption to all outdoor pools, including residential, backyard and children’s pools, as well as non-residential outdoor pools,” Bouchart said Wednesday.

“We hope that this measure will give people more options to stay cool in the coming weeks.”

Bouchart says the city is slowly reintegrating water into the main line, which is now running at 55 percent of normal capacity.

“It is risky to re-pressurize the main line of our system,” he said.

“When we increase the water flow and velocity, the pressure on the walls of the feeder main increases. Last month we addressed five hotspots of major concern and there are other areas that we know are structurally weaker.”

According to Bouchart, the last thing residents want is another major collapse.

“Since Sunday, our monitors have detected two additional wire breaks along the main line,” he said.

“These two ruptures are not a sign that another major rupture is coming, but they do give us important clues about what the pipe can handle and help us determine whether flow and pressure can be increased.”

The city says irrigation systems are still prohibited.

“Watering with sprinklers and irrigation systems remains prohibited, except in very specific cases, such as watering new grass or grass seed,” a statement from the city’s water department said.

“We are in discussions with the Irrigation Association and will continue to work with them to clarify what work can and cannot take place under the current restrictions.”

Employees of NAIAD Irrigation Systems say they are running at a loss.

“The phone stopped ringing so we no longer have quotes for installations,” said owner Myles Sidorak.

“So this will be a hangover for us that will last for years. So this has gone much further than it should have.”

Sidorak says the company has not been fully operational since June 6.

“Two, three weeks before the Stampede they could still say, ‘The show goes on, everything is great,’” he said.

“But we have been kept in the dark the whole time.”

Sidorak says his company wants to carry out 250 service projects, but is unable to do so due to restrictions.

“Our months of making money are May and June. We make a lot of money there. In July and August, we do a few installations. We break even,” he said.

“Then we have autumn outbreaks. … So we’ve already lost June. So the hope is that if we can get back to work quickly enough, we can catch up somewhat.”