Calgary marks two weeks of water restrictions; pipe pieces arrive from San Diego

CALGARY – It has been two weeks since a massive water pipe ruptured in Calgary, leaving residents under restrictions.

Mayor Jyoti Gondek said Wednesday also marked the fourth day in a row Calgarians have successfully used less water than the city produces, avoiding the risk of the taps going dry.

“We have enough of an emergency supply to fight fires and act as backup if needed in hospitals and care facilities,” Gondek said at a media briefing.

She said Calgarians have saved the equivalent of 600 Olympic swimming pools full of water since the pipe broke on June 5.

“That is absolutely a gold medal effort,” she said.

Two new pieces of pipe trucked in from San Diego have arrived and engineers were to begin work to replace defective ones.

Gondek said the pieces were to be sand blasted and covered with expoxy before being used to fix five problem areas of the pipe.

“These hot spots are not actually leaks, but they are sections of the feeder main that needed immediate repair and this is what we found by the inspection that was done by the robots,” Gondek said.

The city has said it could take until mid-July to make the repairs and get water flowing through the pipe again.

Calgary, a city of 1.6 million people, and surrounding municipalities have been under a combination of mandatory and voluntary water restrictions since the water main burst in the city’s northwest.

All outdoor watering is banned and people have been urged to reduce toilet flushes, take shorter showers and do fewer loads of laundry and dishes.