Calgary officials continue to be challenged to keep the city’s water use below 485 million litres per day, which is a higher threshold recently enabled by reconfiguring pumps to change water flow, as the latest round of repairs continue on the Bearspaw South Feeder Main.
To make the most of Calgary’s once again limited water supply, the city returned to Stage 4 Outdoor Water Restrictions on August 26, as repair hotspot work continues until the end of September.
The latest configuration allowed Calgary to move an additional 35 million litres of water through the system each day, officials noted.
Problems begin for Calgary when water use enters the “yellow zone” at a rate of 485 to 500 million litres of water per day. City levels have consistently exceeded these thresholds during the new round of repairs and entered the “red zone” beyond 500 million litres per day. Typical demand for the city, meanwhile, is about 600 million litres per day when restrictions aren’t in effect.
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“In this zone we have difficulty replenishing our underground storage reservoirs to ensure we have enough water for essential services like firefighting and hospitals,” Calgary officials announced in a statement. “We also can’t take the pumps offline for maintenance as we are pushing the system to its maximum capacity.”
To enforce Stage 4 Outdoor Water Restrictions, Calgary officials have increased its level of compliance enforcement. Hundreds of calls have been rolling in each week warning of water misuse. City staff say they continue to see outdoor watering at residences and commercial properties, which is not currently allowed under the restrictions.The fine for outdoor water use under Stage 4 Outdoor Water Restrictions is $3,000, although just five fines have been handed out in recent weeks.
As of September 2, crews had excavated more than half of the pipe segments that need to be repaired.
Calgary officials say acoustic monitoring and an electromagnetic and ultrasonic pipe inspection tool flagged more than 16 additional portions of the Bearspaw South Feeder Main for repair, forcing the city to return to Stage 4 outdoor water restrictions.
Construction remains on schedule to be completed by September 23.
