Indoor water use can now return to normal in Calgary and neighbouring communities, the city’s mayor announced Tuesday.
But Jyoti Gondek is still urging residents to ease back into their regular water-use habits as crews work to fully stabilize the system.
“The reductions that you have been doing at home are not needed anymore,” Gondek said.
“You can return to using water inside your home the way that you were used to; we are asking that people ease into this, though.”
- City officials are set to provide a second update at 12:15 p.m. on Tuesday. Watch it live here or on the CBC Alberta YouTube channel.
In a regular update on Tuesday morning, Gondek said this marks the first step toward completely restoring the water supply and lifting remaining restrictions.
However, the city remains under a state of local emergency and outdoor Stage 4 water restrictions and a citywide fire ban remain in place as crews determine how the system will respond to the easing of indoor conservation measures.
“We’re not completely out of the woods yet,” said Municipal Affairs Minister Ric McIver.
State of local emergency to be reviewed later this week
Gondek added that the state of local emergency expires on Thursday, and the city will review whether to renew or lift it as they monitor the situation.
The City of Calgary’s general manager of infrastructure services Michael Thompson said the Bearspaw south feeder main is operating at 50 per cent capacity for now, and restoring normal water supply also means taking some of the stress off of the rest of the system.
“The Glenmore water treatment plant has been operating at a very high load for the last month, and so we need to start to slow that down,” he said.
“We’re going to reduce the production coming out of the Glenmore water treatment plant. Those pumps have all been going, nonstop, and we haven’t had the ability to go and do some of the regular maintenance that we’ve needed to do at that plant.”
He said that crews will be measuring how the pipe reacts to turning on more pumps, which moves more water through the pipe, in the coming days to understand when the remaining restrictions can be lifted.
Thompson also added this method of stabilizing the pipe is similar to oil and gas operations, and that water crews continue to work with energy sector partners.
“Things like car washes will be reopening today, indoor pools will be reopening today,” said Thompson, adding the city is reaching out to those partners now.
When asked if the provincial government has plans to help Calgary pay for the costs associated with the feeder main’s rupture, McIver said he would wait to hear from the city before committing to any financial support.
“This is an unexpected expense … I think it’s a fairly easy guess that it’ll be a large one,” said McIver.
City officials provide an update on the major feeder main break affecting Calgary’s water supply.
During Monday’s update, the mayor said residents used 425 million litres of water on Sunday — the lowest number since the Bearspaw feeder main ruptured nearly one month ago.
Officials said they will have more information on businesses and facilities that use water later today during the city’s afternoon update, which is scheduled for 12:15 p.m.
Gondek said on Tuesday that Calgary Emergency Management Agency (CEMA) chief Sue Henry would now be taking over the city’s regular morning briefings.