Calgary’s water usage reaches unsustainable levels

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Growing demand is putting further strain on Calgary’s water system as residents and businesses were asked to further reduce water usage on Monday.

Water consumption on Sunday amounted to 509 million litres, which is 24 million litres more than the threshold of 485 million litres and 13 million litres more than Saturday’s demand.

Mondays are typically the busiest days for water use as Calgarians return from the weekend, said Michael Thompson, general manager of city infrastructure.

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At this time of year, daily water consumption is typically around 600 million gallons, but a broken Bearspaw South Main is making it difficult for the city to deliver water to residents.

“I would like to thank the people of Calgary, both residents and businesses, for your collective efforts, which have saved approximately 100 million litres of water per day,” Thompson said Monday afternoon.

Earlier Monday, Mayor Jyoti Gondek, supported by several of her council colleagues, also appealed to Calgarians to do more to reduce water usage to safe levels.

Thompson said: “Please put away laundry that can wait, remember to only flush when necessary and do not spray outside with drinking water.”

Director of capital priorities and investments Francois Bouchart said Calgary has achieved 80 per cent of its desired reduction in daily water use and now the city needs to catch up to reach 485 million litres.

“Rclosing the gap is as simple as not flushing… or skipping two flushes a day. That’s very little to get to where we need to be,” Bouchart said.

Repairs are now halfway through, full service is expected on September 26th

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Gondek said “things are looking really good so far” with ongoing construction on the southern section of the main water pipeline to Bearspaw, which originally burst in June and is undergoing further repairs.

She added that the repair work is halfway through and is expected to be completed by September 23. Then, there will be three days of flushing the pipes and testing the water, and full restoration is expected by September 26.

Over the next two weeks, work will continue at a fourth repair location along 33rd Avenue NW in Bowness, as well as three locations along 16th Avenue NW in Montgomery.

Bouchart said repairs to 14 of the 21 pipeline sections had been completed by Monday afternoon.

“Progress is good” on the remaining seven segments, with formwork and rebar being installed on five of them and preparations for pouring concrete underway on the remaining two.

Gondek reminded Calgary residents to visit Montgomery businesses affected by road closures for repairs. Some affected businesses are losing about $10,000 a week in revenue, according to Ward 7 councillor Terry Wong.

In response to questions about how we still have water despite constant, unsustainable demand and heavy strain on the system, Gondek said city crews have learned from the water restrictions in June and have found a workaround that will allow more water to be pumped through the system while repairs are made.

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The current water usage goal of $485 million is intended to protect the Glenmore Water Treatment Plant, she added. The plant is now operating “more than twice as fast,” producing 70 per cent of Calgary’s treated water, up from the usual 30 per cent.

Commercial water users ‘significantly’ reduce water usage: mayor

Wong said if water usage continues at current unsustainable levels, businesses could be forced to close.

However, Gondek said the city’s largest non-resident water users had responded positively to the restrictions, adding that they were also asked to further reduce their water consumption.

“They have managed to significantly reduce consumption,” Gondek said. “Ongoing discussions with these groups are aimed at seeing what else they can do.”

She stressed that residents are being asked to “do more” to reduce water consumption, as is the case with businesses.

“If we had large (commercial) water users who didn’t change their habits at all, we would address that immediately,” she said.

“In terms of outdoor water usage, currently no one is able to use it due to the restrictions in place.”

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The fourth stage of restrictions on outdoor water consumption has not yet resulted in a consistent reduction in its consumption to the city’s target of 485 million litres, which has increased from 450 million litres last week.

Gondek said the goal is to provide an “abundance of caution” during a period of increased demand on the Glenmore Water Treatment Plant.

If there were to be a failure at Glenmore that required a complete shutdown or partial loss of production, “we would immediately be in an emergency situation, and that’s something we want to avoid.”

Water misuse calls to 311 continue to come in. Officials said Monday they had filed 413 complaints about residential water users, 275 complaints about commercial users and 126 complaints about multifamily users.

Thompson said 29 violation tickets were issued, 23 to residential customers, four to commercial customers and two to multifamily customers. Each ticket came with a $3,000 fine.

Carolyne Bowen, the city’s climate and environment director, said Sunday that when water use is in the unsustainable or “red zone,” there is a risk we will not be able to meet water demands.

“(In the red zone) it’s becoming increasingly difficult to recover water from our underground storage tanks,” Bowen said. “At that level, we don’t do preventive maintenance, and all maintenance is reactive.”

City officials warn that repeatedly exceeding that threshold could empty underground reservoirs. A citywide boil water advisory has been issued.

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