Calgary water emergency: Officials “confident” repairs finished by July 5

during this emergency those changes that we had that we had made will need to be reset to regular Crews will be out doing that work and as we learn more about the timing it will take to flush the pipes the timing it will take to test the water and restart the flow of water we will keep you updated every step of the way we need to be cautious about how quickly we bring this feeder M back online to prevent any further complications and we need to be cautious about how quick quickly we lift restrictions on water usage to make sure that we are easing back slowly into full capacity it will be a staged approach before we return to normal and like any other return to work process it will involve uh different St stages along the way and we’ll make sure that we keep you up to dat on what that means for timing I’ll now turn things over to you deputy chief Kobe der from the Calgary Emergency Management agency thank you mayor good afternoon thanks for joining us and I want to begin by thanking calgarians for everything they have done to limit water usage we met our daily Target consuming 400 45 million lers of water for yesterday June 18 we’re heading into a stretch of warm weather in the coming days and this will be our first test of summer-like weather while underwater water restrictions as mayor gondak mentioned it sounds like we may have some positive news on the on the repair timelines and we’ll wait to hear from general manager Michael Thompson on that we are so pleased to see calgarians ring around our call to reduce water use as you have heard in earlier updates the Glenmore water treatment plant is working extra hard we were we are relying on the Elbow River for more water than we normally would that is why we are counting on calgarians to continue to reduce their water usage by 25% to make sure we have enough water to meet the essential needs until the repairs are complete here are some additional tips to continue to reduce water use at home reduce the number of laundry loads you do each week and switch the appliance setting to an Eco setting if you have one turn off the your water softener this can save approximately 200 l every time it Cycles if you don’t have a low-flow toilet you can further reduce the amount of water for each flesh by placing something in the toilet tank to displace the water like a brick or a pot bottle full of water reduce the time of your shower to 3 minutes or less and turn off the water when lathering with soap or shampoo City operations are not immune to the water restrictions either as you youve likely heard we’ve had to close pools Council swimming lessons pause street sweeping and delay other City programming because of the water restrictions we’re also doing our part to recycle water wherever we can Recreation has closed the number of pools to conserve water and during that time they’re doing some much needed maintenance on the coming day in the coming days City Crews will be taking dechlorinated water from pools and reusing that for washing Bridges and brige decks and in certain construction applications related the City of Calgary is working closely with calgar construction industry to open two locations over the next days on the B River to provide non-potable water for construction work this water will be free of charge and will be the responsibility of the end user to ensure that the water is appropriately appropriate for its intended application we want to thank the provincial government for Expediting the permits needed to help move this program forward quickly we will have more firm details including locations and timing in the days in the days coming I want to address reports of our crews being harassed called names and filmed and photographed while outdoing critical repair work this behavior is not okay we have heard this happening when crews are performing necessary procedures where they must flesh water from pipes this may appear to be wasteful use of water that might evoke an emotional response but let me explain what is actually happening while the city has prioritized reducing our water usage we must continue practices that are necessary to meet regulatory standards for water quality public health and safety and to maintain our water distribution system flushing occurs for many reasons such as restoring Water Service following a a main break repairs or quality invest Water Quality Investigations crews are doing their best to ensure that they use as little water as necessary to complete this important work harassing City staff who are doing critical repair or regulatory work to ensure all calgarians have access to clean Safe Drinking Water will not be tolerated if you have a question question or concern about something you’re seeing I’d ask you to call 311 rather than approach staff or making negative assumptions we have also received some questions from calgarians about those experiencing homelessness and other vulnerabilities we have been regularly checking in with our Emergency Shelters and social agency partners throughout Calgary I am pleased to report that they are all doing well in fact we have heard anecdotally from one of our shelters that they’ve reduce their consumption by 40% they are handing out bottle water instead of using tap using compostable dishes and encouraging their clients to limit shower time it is important to recognize that while social agencies are doing their part they are still very much open and supporting Calgary’s unhoused population we can’t thank all calgarians including those experiencing vulnerabilities for all you have done to continue and Contin continue to do lastly before I move on to daily status updates from 301 and BW we’ve heard some feedback from some of our service providers on working from home we recognize that not all persons are able to work from home especially Frontline service workers and we want you to know that we value your efforts and contributions thank you for all that you are doing from a bylaw perspective officers have had 21, or 2,100 20 calls since June 6th there have been 574 written warnings issued five 7 23 verbal warnings three violation tickets have been issued to corporations we have had a total of 131 calls for service for the fire ban 12 are pending investigation 15 written warnings have been issued 59 verbal warnings have been issued and four violation tickets have been ISS issued the total number of calls related to the water event at our 311 system is 7,246 please continue to do your part to reduce water consumption make every drop count I’d like to bring up GM Michael Thompson to give us an update on the work sites good afternoon everyone as you may have heard the two sections of f pipe we sourced from the San Diego Water Authority have arrived at the fabrication shop and are being prepared for install before we transport them to site preparation work includes sand blasting and then applying the epoxy coating we Source this pipe from the San Diego Water Authority as they are part of the existing Municipal Network that we use to share critical water infrastructure Parts the arrival of the pipe fits into our repair schedule and we are happy that it is now being prepared this quick Transportation would not have been possible without the support of multiple levels of government that our emergency management team has been in direct contact with we are aware there has been some conversation online regarding the similar pipe that may be available closer to home the pipe from San Diego met all of the technical specifications for water pipe there are many different technical specifications for pipe and we need to ensure we use this specific pipe for our water system safety repair of the hot five hotspots is advancing quickly as we work as work is continuing 247 at the two sites on 16th Avenue Northwest the photo we are sharing with you now was taken yesterday evening and you can see the excavation that was happening I was out there this morning and the all of the pipes are now exposed Crews completed that excavation work overnight with all five hotpots and they confirm the precise locations of the pipe sections that require repair today crews are proceeding with cutting the existing damaged pipe and readying it for removal we continue to look for ways to complete the repair as quick as possible while keeping safety top of Mind as I shared previously we committed to providing calgarians an updated timeline by the end of the week as we look at the work completed to date specifically the excavations and exposing the five sections of pipe we can now share we are aiming for the low end of our original timeline of 3 to 5 weeks which would be July the 5th there are still many risks ahead but every day we work through this complex repair we become more confident in our timeline as you can see from our schedule completion of the repair of pipe of the pipe is just one step in removing indoor water restrictions following the completion of the repair we need to flush the feeder Man pipe and then test it this ensures the safety of the drinking water system for our community we are working on a plan to restore water service and will provide those details in the near future until we complete the repairs and restore water services to normal we want to thank calgarians for continuing to support the current restrictions the team continues to visit with and provide updates to the businesses and residents impacted by construction we remain committed to keeping you informed as we progress with repairing the feeder main our team and the contractors appreciate your support cooperation and understanding as we continue to execute these repairs as quickly and safely as possible possible Crews have been intentionally supporting local businesses by purchasing meals from restaurants in the area and doing what they can to help thank you to the entire Community for continuing to show support to our team and each other this is a true demonstration of community resilience and I’ll now re turn it over to Mayor [Music] gondek thanks for that update Michael and I know a lot of people were waiting to hear if there was a new timeline I’ve also heard a lot of questions about whether we have redundancy in Calgary’s water system and in light of the feeder M break I think it’s important for us to consider how we look at redundancy think about it this way if we didn’t have redundancy in this system we wouldn’t have water running to all of our homes right now so with a 2 meter wide water feeder man out of service and we continue to have water coming to our homes there is redundancy in place that redundancy is through the Glenmore treatment plant that’s been running at capacity for the last couple of weeks and it’s been an absolutely vital part of the city’s water redundancy system this plant combined with rerouted FL flows of water allowed us to continue surveying calgarians the folks at sutina Nation arre Strathmore and Chestermere that system redundancy is why while crews are working around the clock on repairs all of us have been able to have water coming to our homes but we have to continue to be smart about our use of water and to make sure that emergency users like hospitals and firefighters have access to water supply and also to make sure you and your neighbors have water running to your Taps I also want to talk about why the last pieces of pipe that we needed came from California rather than being sourced locally there were five pieces that were needed in total to do these repairs and three of them were available here we had those pieces in stock when we focused on finding in local options for the other two we knew that if we could find something locally the delivery time would be so much faster by going to one of our neighbors unfortunately the issue is the size of the pipe that we need this is not the type of pipe that is regularly used in oil and gas operations and it’s typically organizations like those that provide Safe Drinking Water to Residents in other areas that would have this type of pipe on hand and that’s why San Diego County became such an important partner they had this piece on hand and while we would have welcomed the opportunity to custom make something in our own Province it simply would have taken too much time and our goal right now is to get your water turned back on that requires looking at safe and Speedy options for the repair work until then we all need to keep our water usage down and you need to keep doing the things you’ve been doing like having a Navy shower doing only full loads in the dishwasher or the washing machine and selectively flushing the toilet all of you know what to do and you have been doing it and for that reason you are all great people so you will see us again tomorrow I’ll be on the live stream tomorrow morning at 8:30 and we’ll be back here at 2: P.M tomorrow at the emergency Operation Center with that I will pass it over to Jose to take questions from the media yeah hi mayor uh yesterday we heard from officials that the costs of this have been very closely tracked since this emergency started what is the estimated ballpark for how much has been spent so far are we talking 5 million 50 million and have any asks being put to the provincial or federal federal governments to help offset some of those costs I’d love to be able to give you give you a figure but the fact of the matter is that everything is moving so quickly and there are so many moving parts to this so to provide an estimate at this stage is difficult to do but I know the teams are keeping track of things and when we can release some information to you about cost we certainly will and I can tell you that I’ve been in regular conversation with the provincial government on what we are doing and what our needs are and uh the Prime Minister checked in with us on the weekend as well so as we need assistance we will continue to ask for it how much just a timeline on how long does that sand blasting in aoxy typically take um I understand obviously some of the pipes can be done is it something that takes a couple of days does it take a week or two how long I’m going to get GM Thompson to come up but from what I understand it’s a few days yeah thanks for the question so typically that would take two to three days we’re working with our uh our vendor to try and do that as quick as possible they’re working 247 uh in their shop to get that completed as soon as possible to get that material out to sight um it’s been two weeks since the break I’m wondering if the city has determined how many kilometers of pip have attributes to the pipeline that broke yeah thanks for the question we have over 5,000 kilomet of water pipe across the city 98% of our water system is in good or very good condition how many of those kilometers have the similar engineering attributes the wire the pre-stressed wire in the in case concrete I don’t have that number on me specifically but I can get that number on having is any of this insurable so we are working with our our risk and insurance department right now to find out what that looks like from an insurance capacity we do not have that information right now we’re still in the early stages of this incident I know it’s two weeks and that seems like a long time but it’s not we’re really our eyes are fully focused on the repair work that’s going on right nower on the uh river water use for you know construction or industrial purposes what’s kind of the the vision there or what are you guys hoping to see here with those two locations uh you I know details are still to come but uh yeah what what ideally would that look like and what what type of operations would that Supply so we’re hoping to support the construction industry and making sure that we can get back to the essential building that we need to need to be doing right now to be able to support the housing developments and so we’re working with that construction industry to find out how much water water that they’re going to be using it is going to be a pull through methodology where you pull through get get your water and off you go again uh it will be uh non-potable it will be uh from the river and we do have the appropriate permits to do that and on the you know I heard we heard street cleaning as well um please I was just going to see SL water is essential for compaction uh compaction of uh the materials required to build those communities and so that’s what we’ll be using it for and the industry will be using it for to ensure that we’re keeping that Community construction going throughout the summer I know we heard yesterday during Council believe one question question about the street cleaning operations as well that’s been delayed use of potentially river water as well for that is there any update on on on that side of the operations when it comes to getting maybe those city services backl with so the we are using some ingenuitive methods we’re using some of the water that we mentioned out of the pools uh to support some of the bridge work that we’re doing the uh the street sweeping program is still paused at this time but we are looking at options for that as well City News uh the two locations that you mentioned at River for the construction workers that non water are there any details of the exact locations when they’ll be able to access it and how you’re going to make it happen I don’t have those details right now the plan is is we’re accelerating the plan as fast as we possibly can I will have details for you shortly coming days I just wanted to ask um there’s been a lot of talk about how the pipe burs um the wire snapping and whatnot and the soil conditions are you able to comment on exactly what might have happened yeah thanks for the the question right now uh we’re really focused on repairing the break as you heard yesterday we’ll be doing a third-party review during that review we’ll look into all the causes uh for this incident don’t have it right now that will be part of the review okay fair enough um also just on the timeline uh I know originally it was like 3 to five weeks so maybe just um how why are we able to get closer to three weeks and what would it have been to be at the five weeks can just yeah so every day that we work through this repair we get more confident in the timeline uh We’ve exposed all the pipe uh the f sections were exposed last night so now we know what we’re dealing with as we look at those five sections we’ve got all of the pipe uh in uh in the area and we’re preparing that for installation so we’re much more confident as we go through and cut the pipe remove it uh again we become much more confident in our timeline and we’re constantly trying to accelerate that as we work forward when you’re working underground and you’re opening things up there’s always a a probability that you’re going to find things unexpected so as as we move forward and we get more of the schedule in our control we’re more comfortable and confident in in accelerating and and achieving these timelines so is July 5th the earliest it could be at this point in time but it could be earlier we are working every day to accelerate as quickly as we can as we learn more uh throughout this week uh we’ll come back next week with an update on the timeline yes s can I just clarify the um the river water that will be available for industry you mentioned some construction companies what about say other different companies like pressure washing companies what will be the parameters for which industry which businesses will be allowed to apply to pick up that water great question I don’t have that detail for you right now we are looking at all the options of what that looks like and we’re finding out exactly how much the construction industry needs in the sense of uh what GM Michael Thompson was talking about and we’ll figure out what that looks like from there and just to control people’s imaginations there’s trucks will not be pulling down the river and sucking it out will they no that exactly we will have this will all be done through a process and it will all be done uh properly your bet with the appropriate permits from the provincial governments we’ll take a couple more questions mrck when it comes to the the line itself that full feeder main line from The Spot Treatment Plant um we know we have 4 and half km inspected there’s still a lot of there that it sounds like has not been expected how confer are we in the um in the capacity and condition of that remaining section of pipe uh that maybe hasn’t been looked at by that that robot inspection our Focus right now is on repairing the five hotspots that we’ve identified once we’ve got the line back in service we’ll be looking at an inspection plan for the entire pipe last question our dear friend excuse me our dear friends in San Diego have similar p and they started rehabbing um these pipelines years ago recognizing the problems with the coil and the pre-stress wire I’m wondering if Calgary um was aware of those similar problems and how they were addressing them as we said yesterday during our discussion with Council we were aware of uh of the pipe and issues around this pipe is used across North America many municipalities and so not all of these pipes sections are failing uh we now are learning more about our pipe and our review will help to inform our asset management plan as we go forward I just want to reiterate my thanks to everyone who exercising water saving me measures including businesses I know a lot of you have uh decided to either shut down anything that involves a lot of water usage like grooming of pets or car washes many of you in uh food establishments have have started asking people if they would like a glass of water instead of leaving a jug on the table and all of those things matter all of the measures you’re taking at home as individuals are also very important and this is a really good demonstration of what we can do when we understand that there is a common goal and the common goal is to make sure that the bearspaw treatment facility can start flowing water into this feeder M and make sure that we have that regularity of water service so thank you everybody it can’t be stressed enough we couldn’t do it without all of you and we appreciate you for it

Calgary officials provided an update on the water emergency Wednesday, saying that regular water supply will likely be restored on the earlier end of the timeline estimate — in about three weeks rather than five.

Michael Thompson, general manager of infrastructure services, said the repairs on the five hot spots are continuing quickly. He said construction is ongoing 24/7 at two locations.

Thompson said all the damaged pipes are now exposed and the precise locations identified. The next steps will be cutting the damaged sections of pipe and readying them for removal.

The two sections of specialized water pipe that arrived from San Diego are being treated at a local fabrication shop.

The initial timeline for a return to normal water service was three to five weeks. That includes repairing the five hot spots, executing feeder main flushing and testing, getting the pipe ready for network flow, restoring the city water and returning the system to normal service.

Thompson said Wednesday the repair estimate is now “on the lower end,” closer to three weeks.

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