‘Exercising caution:’ Calgary mayor says city will stay in Stage 2 water restrictions

Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek says the city will stay in Stage 2 water restrictions for the time being, after issues were found with the raw water intake pumps at the Bearspaw and Glenmore treatment plants.

“Since we announced the change to Stage 2 water restrictions last Thursday morning, our water services team has been monitoring the Bearspaw feeder main and the city’s entire water network very carefully,” she said. “Over the last four days, things appeared to be moving smoothly until last night.

“This morning, we learned that there have been some issue with water intake pumps at Bearspaw and Glenmore treatment facilities because of the hot weather.”

Gondek says until these pump issues are resolved, the city needs to stay at Stage 2 restrictions.

“This work of restoring water service requires careful attention to all conditions within the network. To ensure that we are able to continue water service to businesses and homes, we are exercising caution at this time,” Gondek said.

General Manager of Infrastructure Services Michael Thompson says on Sunday night, the raw water intake pumps tripped a breaker, and although the issue isn’t major, an assessment and maintenance need to be done before water use is increased.

“While these pump issues are not related to the performance of the feeder main, they do impact how much water we can flow from the two water treatment plants through the system,” he explained.

Three more wire snaps were also detected over the weekend, none of which are near the site of the original break. Thompson says this brings the total number of wire snaps to seven since the pipe was brought back online following the June 5 break.

But, this doesn’t throw the pipeline into dire straits.

“We expect to hear wire snaps along the length of the pipe,” Thompson explained. “As you may recall, the pre-stressed wire wraps around the pipe approximately 350 times per 16-foot segment of pipe, so individual wire snaps are not a concern.”

Stage 2 water restrictions allow for the use of sprinklers, soaker hoses, or in-ground sprinkler systems up to one hour a week on specific days; even house numbers can water on Wednesdays or Saturdays, and odd house numbers can water on Thursdays or Sundays.

Officials teased a possible move to Stage 1 restrictions throughout the last week, which would allow the use of sprinklers, soaker hoses, or in-ground sprinkler systems up to two hours a week on the same schedule as Stage 2.

A smaller water break on Bowness Road NW Friday has also kept city crews busy.

Gondek says the break, unrelated to the Bearspaw South feeder main, was repaired and water service was restored Sunday.

Paving of the area is scheduled for Monday.

-With files from Alejandro Melgar