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Meanwhile, Calgary is still under Stage 3 outdoor watering restrictions, but is on track to move to Stage 2 by Thursday
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The tab for repairing six sections of the water feeder main that burst in northwest Calgary last month will run into the “tens of millions of dollars,” a city official said Tuesday.
During the question period portion of a city council public hearing, Ward 2 Coun. Jennifer Wyness asked for a cost estimate for the repairs — including the staff overtime bill — to rehabilitate a five-kilometre stretch of pipe leading from the Bearspaw Water Treatment Plant.
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On one of those sites in Montgomery, a section of feeder main catastrophically failed on June 5. Five other segments were later cited as “hot spots” that also required urgent repairs.
The total price tag to fix these six sections will be in the “tens of millions of dollars, not larger than that,” responded general manager of infrastructure services Michael Thompson.
“We believe we have contingencies to deal with that,” he said.
Last month, some councillors raised questions about how much the crisis will end up costing the city, with some worrying the tab would fall on utility rate payers.
Thompson didn’t say when the exact financial impact would be published, but added the costs for long-term rehabilitation of possibly vulnerable sections of the feeder main would also eventually be provided.
City officials have previously said all costs associated with the water emergency were being recorded and would be included in the third-party review that investigates what caused the feeder main to rupture and the city’s response.
That review is expected to last upwards of a year, however. On July 30, council will consider options to appoint the panel that will undertake the review, after previously rejecting CAO David Duckworth’s suggestion to hand-select an advisory committee that would be responsible for selecting the panel chair.
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Wyness told Postmedia during a break in Tuesday’s meeting she wasn’t surprised by Thompson’s answer, but said she’d like to see the city come forward with a detailed cost breakdown sooner rather than later.
“When you’re in reactionary spending, you’re not really thinking about the cost,” she said. “You’re just trying to get it up and running.”
Considering the crisis has “stabilized” to an extent since the feeder main was brought back into service, Wyness argued the city should be able to produce an interim cost breakdown that includes all crisis-related expenses.
“Given it’s been asked a couple of times, I was hoping for a bit better of an answer than I got today and I think it just means Calgarians are going to have to pay attention to this topic going forward,” she said.
Pipe’s pressure increased to 70 per cent
Meanwhile, director of capital priorities and investment Francois Bouchart said during a 2 p.m. update on Tuesday that the feeder main is now operating at 70 per cent pressurization, after another pump was turned on at the Bearspaw Water Treatment Plant the day before.
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The increased flow rate hasn’t resulted in any additional issues for the water main, Bouchart said, but he added city staff will continue monitoring the pipeline for signs of stress or damage that would halt progress.
He added Calgary is still under Stage 3 outdoor watering restrictions, but is on track to move to Stage 2 by Thursday.
Stage 3 restrictions allow for some outdoor watering activities, but only by handheld container or watering can.
Moving down to Stage 2 would allow households to use outdoor hoses that have an attached spray nozzle, or their lawn sprinkler systems for one hour per week on a set schedule.
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While Bouchart acknowledged that acoustic monitoring detected a fourth reinforcement wire snap along the feeder main on Monday, he said this snap occurred before the second pump was turned on and the pressure was increased.
Snaps of the wire that tightly coils around an interior section of the pipe are indicators the main is under stress, he said.
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Last week, the city said it detected three additional wire snaps, leading to some concerns over the system’s strength.
“Even though we fixed the five hot spots on the pipe that were segments that were so damaged they needed emergency repair, we know there are other places where the pipe has some structural weakness,” Bouchart said. “These will need a medium- to long-term plan to address and we’re looking at that plan right now.”
Calgary’s collective water use amounted to 558 million litres on Monday, which Bouchart noted was an increase from Sunday but still within the limit of what the system can provide.
With more than a week of daily high temperatures reaching north of 30 C in the forecast, Bouchart noted the city is anticipating higher water demand in the coming days.
“Also remember the best time to water is in the early morning or later at night, when temperatures are cooler,” he said. “You will lose less water to evaporation and get the biggest benefits for your plants.”
— With files from Bill Kaufmann
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