Calgary staying put with Stage 2 outdoor water restrictions, citing issues with water intake pumps

Recent issues means the city will delay a move to Stage 1 outdoor water restrictions, city officials said Monday.

On Sunday, Calgary's director of water services Nancy Mackay said a decision to further ease outdoor water-use restrictions from Stage 2 to Stage 1 would be made on Monday morning.

On Monday, Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek said things appeared to be running smoothly over the last four days, until last night.

"This morning, we learned that there have been some issues with water intake pumps at both the Bearspaw and Glenmore treatment facilities, because of the hot weather," Gondek said.

"There have also been a total of three wire snaps that were detected over the weekend."

None of these are near the site of the original feeder main break, according to Gondek. But until the pump issues are resolved, the city will remain in Stage 2 outdoor water restrictions, she said.

"As we have said many times before, this work of restoring water service requires careful attention to all conditions within the network," Gondek said.

"To ensure that we are able to continue water service to homes and businesses, we are exercising caution at this time."

On Friday, a different water main on Bowness Road N.W. ruptured. That resulted in the closure of Bowness Road N.W. between 51st Street and Home Road.

Crews have been able to remove water from that site to excavate and repair the pipe quickly, according to Gondek. The repair work was completed yesterday and water service is expected to be restored today.

This past weekend's hot temperatures also led to an uptick in water use, with 648 million litres of water used yesterday, Gondek said.

Michael Thompson, the city's general manager of infrastructure services, said while the issues tied to the pumps are not major, it is important to conduct an assessment and performance maintenance on the pumps.

"While these pump issues are not related to the performance of the feeder main, they do impact how much water we can flow from the two water treatment plants through the system," he said. 

"The maintenance work may impact the amount of water we are able to supply for the next couple of days."

A spokesperson with the City of Calgary said there are 34 individual pumps in the city's water treatment plants. Twenty-three are associated with the Bearspaw water treatment plant, while 11 are part of the Glenmore water treatment plant complex.

They are of various sizes and capacity and are run in several combinations in order to feed water through the plant and into the distribution system, the spokesperson said. 

Last week, the city eased outdoor water restrictions and moved from Stage 3 to Stage 2. 

Under Stage 2 outdoor water restrictions, residents can water gardens and lawns, though with some limitations. Residents using sprinklers must follow a watering schedule, and full details on the city's guidelines for outdoor watering can be found here. 

Under Stage 1 restrictions, those limitations would be loosened slightly.