Calgary water use outpaces cap on first full day of new restrictions

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This article was published 27/08/2024 (767 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

CALGARY – Taps may run dry and firefighters could encounter empty hydrants if residents don’t shape up and abide by renewed water restrictions, Calgary’s mayor warned Tuesday.

Calgarians sent 530 million litres down the drains on Monday, the first full day of a new round of rationing.

That’s well above the 450-million-litre cap the city needs to stay under while a major water main that burst in June undergoes further repairs.

If Calgarians don’t do their part, “we’ll be in a lot of trouble,” Mayor Jyoti Gondek told reporters.

“We will run out of water. And if we run out of water, that means you will turn on your tap and nothing will come out. It will mean that firefighters cannot attend to emergencies without wondering whether the hydrant will turn on,” she said.

“We will be in dire straits if we do not start reducing our water usage now.”

After the Bearspaw South Feeder Main in northwest Calgary ruptured in June, the city banned outdoor watering and asked residents to cut their use indoors by a quarter.

Those measures had mostly eased when, earlier this month, Gondek announced more weak spots had been found in the pipe and urgent repairs were needed.

Strict water restrictions returned Monday, meaning Calgarians are banned from using sprinklers and hoses with potable water and are being urged to cut their use indoors by taking three-minute showers, holding off on toilet flushes and running fewer dishwasher and laundry loads.

Monday’s usage was about 75 million litres lower than Sunday’s, when restrictions were limited to which day of the week residents could water their lawns and for how long.

“This drop shows that many of you are taking the right steps to limit your water use and I want to sincerely thank you for making those adjustments,” said Michael Thompson, the city’s general manager for infrastructure services.

“With the feeder main out of service, we simply do not have enough water if we do not lower our water use.”

Thompson said the pipe’s flow was turned off Monday morning and water was in the process of being drained. Crews have begun digging up a road in the Bowness neighbourhood, where many of the new trouble spots on the pipe were found.

It’s crucial the water main gets fixed right away, Thompson said.

“We simply cannot risk another catastrophic failure of the feeder main like we saw earlier this year in the winter months, when we will not have the water supply to refill reservoirs,” he said.

“We have a short window to complete these repairs.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 27, 2024.