Calgarians used 425 million litres of water on Sunday, the lowest number since the Bearspaw feeder main ruptured in early June, Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek said during her Monday morning livestream update on the city’s water situation.
“I thank you from the bottom of my heart for digging a little bit deeper, and getting those water savings up,” Gondek said.
“This gratitude is not just coming from me. It’s coming from so many others. People like the Calgary Fire Department, who had to battle a blaze at Ol’ Beautiful early yesterday morning.”
On Sunday, a fire destroyed the Ol’ Beautiful Brewing Company brewery in Ramsay. It required an estimated 1.2 million litres of water to extinguish.
The city had issued an urgent call for residents to cut their water consumption on Friday, after usage spiked to its highest level since the crisis began.
- City officials will provide an update on the water main repairs Monday at 2 p.m. MT. You can watch it live here, or on the CBC Alberta YouTube channel.
Gondek said crews began stabilizing the water system on Sunday. She noted that the stabilization step presents the greatest risk of another break or a disruption of service.
“If we go too fast, we could overstress the system. This could cause leaks or breaks. That’s why we’re being so incredibly cautious,” Gondek said.
“We’re taking things very slowly, because we are not finished yet. We are certainly not out of the woods yet.”