Water restrictions on schedule to end in Calgary next weekend: City

A stock photo of a hose outside. (Unsplash/John Nzoka)

Water restrictions which have been in place all summer will end next weekend, the city’s director of water services said Saturday.

Nancy Mackay delivered the news at a Saturday afternoon update that all of Calgary has been waiting to hear for a while now.

“Today I’m pleased to share that repairs continue to proceed well and that as shared by Mayor Gondek on Thursday, our updated timeline for the end of water restrictions is a week ahead of schedule,” Mackay said.

“We expect a return to normal water use and to lift all water restrictions over the weekend of Sept. 21 and 22,” she added.

Friday, Mayor Jyoti Gondek said she expected repairs to be completed this weekend.

"Thanks to round-the-clock work that's being done by construction crews as well as the advance planning that's being done by city experts, we are expecting construction on the Bearspaw south feeder main to be completed this weekend,” Gondek said.

Mackay said that in order to the Bearspaw feeder main running again, the city will follow a three-step process involving filling the pipe, testing it and then stabilizing it.

Water consumption for Calgary ticked up Sunday to 486 million litres of treated water, putting the city in the yellow zone of concern.

“We have just one more week to keep up our water reduction efforts before we have normal water service again,” she said.

“Thank you for continuing to reduce your water use so we can safely return the Bearspaw feeder main to service and lift water restrictions next weekend.”

With files from Michael Franklin