Calgary nears final stages of restoring full water use after main break

globalnews.ca:

Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek said emergency crews are nearing the final stages of restoring full water use after a massive feeder main break that has impacted the city’s waterlines for almost one month.

During a press conference on Saturday, Gondek said crews have been taking preliminary samples during the pipe flushing process to send to Alberta Health Services for testing.

“This means we are approaching the final steps of restoring citywide water very soon,” she told reporters.

“Preliminary testing is looking encouraging and the final stage of stabilizing involves slowly easing the feeder main back into regular use. This is great news for all of us.”

A massive feeder main, a critical line that carries water from the Bearspaw Water Treatment Plant to about 60 per cent of the city, broke on June 5 in the Montgomery neighbourhood of northwest Calgary.

The city has been relying on water from the South Glenmore Treatment Plant, which is also supplying water to the other 40 per cent of the city.

Emergency crews have continually encouraged Calgarians to stop using water outdoors and minimize indoor water use by taking shorter showers, limiting loads of laundry and cutting back on flushing toilets.

On Thursday, Gondek said Calgarians used 500 million litres of water, about 20 million litres more than the daily limit needed to ensure enough water is available for firefighting and health-care services.

She said Calgarians needed to keep reducing their water use by 25 per cent to prevent reserves from running dry.

During Saturday’s update, she said residents turned things around.

“You doubled down on your conservation efforts and yesterday’s numbers came in at 460 million litres,” Gondek said Saturday.

“I trusted that you would