I admit, I don’t understand how it all works so I have questions.
A water main break in NW Calgary has now put all 1.5 million residents under a severe water restriction status where they can’t even shower.
We don’t know how long this will last.
So how is it that one water line in a city so huge and spread out impacts the entire city so suddenly and severely? Is it a matter of shared pressure? Lack of ability to segregate the supply? Even by quadrant?
I am genuinely curious. I imagine many of those questions will be asked over the coming days.
For a city that size, it is surprising that the supply for the entire city is so vulnerable with just one line break.
Either way, I hope this gets rectified as soon as possible. Its going to be a miserable period for Calgarians.
Related…
UPDATE: Read the comments for more details on the break.
there are two systems. she is right , she doesnt understand so should stfu.
and there is redundancy in the lines for both halfs. and a crossover between them .
Most cities have not been putting money into contingency funds, and have adopted a “fix it when it breaks” mentality. They took the excess and spent it in the same manner as the federal government, fully expecting that when trouble arises, the province and the feds would bail them out from their larger pockets.
This all comes from virtue signal spending programs and little actual accountability. So it isn’t just Gondek, but Nenshi, etc.
The whole city is broken and most of the residents just don’t realize it. I point you to the police spokeswoman. What’s with the rainbow epilets on her shoulders? Everything that is a virtue signal they know how to do, but actual beneficial work. Not a clue.
What municipalities typically do is ignore infrastructure maintenance and when it does break, they go cap in hand to the province and/or the feds crying poverty….meanwhile, they have pissed away taxpayer money on their hobby horses.
I live in Calgary and the city is growing too fast to keep up with all the people.
The province and city should tell people to stay away.
I got a 7.8% tax increase for this?
This has nothing to do with growth. But in regard to growth, we should slow down building….that will keep people from coming. AND, as for property tax growth, don’t forget that compounds.
You don’t own your home, you rent it from the municipality.
And the province.
“We” should do no such thing. Absolutely insane. ‘Degrowth’ has already ruined enough of the world.
I have tried find some design information on the water system to understand what is going on.
I do know the line that failed was not a normal distribution water main you find feeding your house. I understand it is a major transfer line.
What I don’t understand is why they are saying the can’t make enough water since the water plants were not damaged. What I could understand is that they could have issues distributing that water. Ignorance of the system on my part does not mean incompetence on the City’s part.
I don’t blame Gondek for THIS though.
They should publish a piping schematic so Calgarians can understand the problem. Some of us know more about piping design & pipelines than they do. Low water pressure with boil orders affects 5 communities so clearly isolation exists. Why does the rest of the city need to be “locked down” due to this issue? It seems like the Mayor and her Marxist co-hort only know one trick: beat ‘em all with a stick. She can’t have a drought emergency so this will have to do. FIRE THEM ALL.
you’re probably right. Socialists are just itching to have a water crisis. They can’t let this incident go to wasre. Socialists are never more emboldened than when they have emergencies that need their administration.
https://globalnews.ca/news/10464968/alberta-government-drought-response-plan/
Interesting timing. We get to declare the first water emergency in history just one month after coming up with a “drought emergency response plan” complete with sliding terror level scale.
The water pipe line schematic is available. If I remember correctly (been out of the game for about 11 years) the main that broke is around 3 meters in diameter. It is one of if not the largest line in the system. It is a feeder main not a distribution main. It feeds many cisterns throughout the metro area of Calgary. The impact of the break near the Bearspaw water treatment plant means that the Glenmore plant has to take up the slack. Again if I remember right the Bearspaw plant is large enough to feed all of Calgary but the Glenmore plant isn’t. Add in the fact that Airdrie is also fed off of the Calgary water system exasperates the problems. This link has a small corner of the schematic: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/northwest-calgary-watermain-road-closures-1.7226393
My son says that the water in the Bowness area is florescent orange after boiling it for an hour.
Boiling doesn’t remove contaminants. For that you need a filter.
Don’t ask for a piping schematic! Gondek will call in the Calgary Highlanders band!
Well let’s see what the cause was….it could easily have been “deferred maintenance” so the city could piss money away on their stupid pet projects.
Art – cause: I would guess Greenpeace, Forest Ethics, the mayor herself, etc. Nothing says Climate Emergency quite like a water shortage during a drought. If they did find sabotage they could always blame MAGA supporters.
Lke Caltoo said. There is a south and north system with a crossover. If one goes down (in this case the north, the south has to supply the whole city so there is an overall shortage. Yes you can shower but the city is asking for restraint .. reasonable with half the system down.
However, of course the media hyped this thing. The screaming headline was “boil water”.. but reading further this only applied to the two directly affected communities.
One of the reports said that there were repairs in the area earlier this spring. Repairs often introduce problems so I would bet large sums of money that this will prove to be the cause as these systems do not break all by themselves.
What diameter is this line and when was it installed?
(Jeez, maybe it was designed by the same outfit that designed the SE LRT in Edmonton. Funny it lasted this long!!)
“Up to two meters in diameter” according to first link
That’s a lot of water.
Haven’t seen an age yet.
They’re just following some disaster response flow chart.
Makes sense to conserve. Don’t want to put stress on the part of the system that’s not broken, increase chance of another problem.- while busy fixing the first.
From yesterdays city news conference, apparently it was installed in 1975. A 78″ line, installed below the frost line, is not like your average water main break down the street. This is a massive amount of water to control. Why it failed is anyone’s guess right now. Repairs will definitely take some time.
As much as I as a Calgary resident despise the current mayor and this council, this was not their doing and being cautious with that amount of water capacity is not some great conspiracy. The news media have, as usual, blown it way out of proportion. The city has never said to not take a bath, or shower, or do dishes etc. But rather use your brain and conserve water in your own house which is not unreasonable.
Well we don’t really know if this was the doing of the City. It could easily be deferred maintenance or not pigging the pipe or a million other things. If this was a natural gas pipeline you can bet the finger would be pointed at the company regardless of the cause. THIS IS THEIR JOB for God sake.
As for the restrictions…According to CTV News….
“A water main break along 16 Avenue N.W. has impacted the city’s water supply,” it said. “Supply levels have reached a critical state, affecting the city’s ability to provide water to communities and ensure adequate water is available to support emergency fire suppression.”
The alert said all residents should do all they can to conserve water, including not showering or bathing, washing dishes or running appliances that use water until further notice.
In response to CRB’s question about the line diameter: the CTV article linked in the tweet says the broken line is 78 inches.
Tnx. Yeah, that’s a fair size line bit somewhat smaller than what Coyote Gondyk said a day or so back.
She claimed you ”could drive a truck into it.”
Regarding the limits to drag story time protests … you can take over a university and protest, even with people who aren’t students or permanent residents of the country, but a pastor can’t protest a drag queen at a public library.
Seems silly but “I got it”.
Calgary wants tranvestites grooming kids. 10-5 vote by council. Not even close.
Now imagine Western countries like Canada at war with Russia or even worse, China. Never mind the homegrown jihadis.
Jeez.
Has there ever been a disaster response that inspired confidence in government?
Pandemic?
9/11?
Hurricane?
Earthquake?
Flood?
Look at em try to evacuate a single city before a hurricane. Or fix a water main.
Nuclear war? We’re screwed.
Engineers were involved in the design of the system, and there’s yer problem. In Poland, an engineer works in the field for 2 years before they are certified, and that should be adopted over here. If some in here knew how often I curse the assholes (engineers) who design shit, they would shit themselves.
I’d ARGUE that to be an engineer, you have have to First be a trades person.
Hands on Experience blows the door off of 4 yrs in a classroom
Agreed. If you design cars, you should have to change the oil on a few of them first. Every time I look at my right arm I fantasize about branding a toyota engineer with a red hot poker.
Speaking as an Engineer who has had to fix the mistakes made by field people who think they know more than they do I am not to concerned by your arrogance. I doubt you would know where to begin to design a system like this as a start or as a modification. I don’t think there is any one person who would.
Engineers need to have 4 years of practice before they can become a professional engineer. I try to get them relevant field experience. Are there still stupid engineers? Sure are, just as there is dangerous construction people who are unaware of all the requirements. Frankly everyone is judged by the 1 mistake that was made, not the 1000 things done right.
The best projects will have construction people and engineers will work as a team so all requirements are met.
Absolutely.
I build temporary structures and for many years – the old fart still pipes up now again to remind – I told my guys, “Don’t be an engineer.” Srtong backs, weak minds…
Getting engineers to agree with each other is another thing altogether and well above my pay grade.
I would like to suggest that a lot of engineering grunt work is done by those fledgling engineers who aren’t properly supervised and whose work isn’t properly vetted by persons with expertise in the field.
All too often the experts who designed a system have retired and the tribal knowledge about why the system was designed to work the way it was, retired with them undocumented.
There are also the politics at some locations where unionized accredited engineers do not sign off on their work. It is vetted by external consultants who ought not to be doing the review.
There were occasions in my career where, I, a mere chemist , materials scientist and safety specialist , had to ask a fledgling or his supervisor “what were you thinking when you proposed that”? The answer was sometimes a sheepish “uh, oh we better rethink that”.
Quite right that engineering ( and science) needs to be done by teams. By they need competent individuals verifying and questioning each other’s work and assumptions and brave enough to challenge bad decisions.
It doesn’t help when design and verification work is shipped off to some off site location. Ask Boeing.
As for this Water Main issue, this is not by ANY stretch the first time this has happened in Calgary or ANY other Major City on the planet.
What’s different here is the BRAIN DEAD ClimaTard Mindset of Gyoti GonDYKE. She who screamed “CLIMATE EMERGENCY” before even sitting down in her Mayors chair for the first time….
I maintain this disgusting Commie Beotch was INSTALLED rather than “voted” in.
Not one person I’ve spoken with over the past 2.5 yrs has said they “voted’ for her.
Fueled by a cpl of LEFTY WOKE PAC’s most Definitely topped up by the SOROS foundation.
And for the first time Ever, DOMINION Voting Machines were used to “tabulate” election Results – Said machines are akin to a 1990’s Atari game as far as software goes and 100% EASILY hacked – as we saw 4 yrs ago in the US.
She’s an illegitimate Filthy Disgusting COMMUNIST…like pretty much EVERY Big City Mayor in the Country….I Gee, I wonder how that came about eh..?? (See above)
Let’s not forget Neshi was the mayor there for years
What a coincidence. Same problem in Atlanta, Georgia.
They had ONE bloody job!
When is Jokey Gonedyke going to resign?
You can see the break at 0;28 in this video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X35vlg8GeYs
https://developmentmap.calgary.ca/ if you want to take a look at the deep utilities network. 1950mm concrete pipe, installed in 1975
Well, I for one will likely be long dead before we get proper information, and when we got it, rather than make an informed judgment I’d probably just star blankly at it and drool. So I’d prefer to speak now while my opinion is still valuable!