Calgary won’t yet move to Stage 1 outdoor water restrictions due to pump problems

Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek says issues that arose on Sunday night mean the transition to Stage 1 water restrictions won't happen just yet.

In a Monday morning update, Gondek said though things appeared to be running smoothly after Thursday's move to Stage 2 outdoor water restrictions, a problem has since occurred.

"This morning, we learned there have been some issues with water intake pumps at both the Bearspaw and Glenmore treatment facilities because of the hot weather," she said.

Michael Thompson, the city's general manager of infrastructure services, says while the issues aren't major, it does mean they need to conduct an assessment and perform maintenance on the water intake pumps.

"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 says the work may impact the amount of water they're able to supply over the next couple of days.

Officials are also expecting increased water demand over the next few days because of the heat, which will also put stress on the plant and the system.

"Until we are able to resolve the pump issues, we will be remaining in Stage 2 outdoor water restrictions," Gondek said.

Gondek said there were also three wire snaps detected over the weekend, though none of them were near the site of the original feeder main break.

That brings the total number of wire snaps since the wire was brought into service to seven.

Thompson said that wire snaps are expected along the length of the pipe.

"The wire wraps around the pipe approx. 350 times per 16-foot segment of pipe, so individual wire snaps are not a concern," he said.

Friday water main break

On Monday, both the mayor and Thompson also took time to address a water main break on Friday in Montgomery that created issues for some residents and businesses.

"It was a smaller water main break, unrelated to the Bearspaw feeder main, creating flooding and disruption in water service," Gondek said.

"Crews were able to remove water from the site, to excavate and repair the pipe quickly. Today there will be paving in this area, which is around the 5100 block of Bowness Road, and that will start to ease some of the traffic closures."

Thompson added that the pipe impacted was a 10-inch cast-iron pipe, and that the incident had no impact on the flow through the feeder main.

Hot weather did cause an uptick in water use in Calgary, Thompson said, with 648 million litres of water used on Sunday.

Gondek said the city will continue to hold 2 p.m. updates daily, starting Tuesday, in addition to an 8:30 a.m. update on Wednesday.