{"id":345549,"date":"2026-01-01T00:41:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T00:41:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/345549\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T00:41:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T00:41:12","slug":"no-timeline-for-calgary-water-main-fix-boil-water-advisory-in-place-for-some-areas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/345549\/","title":{"rendered":"No timeline for Calgary water main fix; boil water advisory in place for some areas"},"content":{"rendered":"

City of Calgary officials say they have identified the location of what they are calling a second \u201ccatastrophic\u201d water main break in the northwest in less than two years, but they do not have a timeline as to when it might be fixed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Catastrophic is the most severe categorization of incidents, according to the city’s risk assessment. <\/p>\n

Firefighters and police responded Tuesday evening to significant flooding beneath the CPKC rail bridge near 69th Street N.W.<\/p>\n

Thirteen people had to be rescued from eight vehicles that got caught in the torrent of water.<\/p>\n

RAW | Vehicles get caught in water main break in Calgary:\"\"<\/p>\n

Major water main break in northwest Calgary<\/p>\n

A water main break in Calgary\u2019s Bowness neighbourhood Tuesday night caused flooding and prompted a boil water advisory.<\/p>\n

Josh Podulsky was one of those rescued. He was driving along 16th Avenue when he said the road “exploded.” <\/p>\n

He described seeing a massive water spout, and within seconds water levels began rapidly rising around him. <\/p>\n

“It was pretty freaky,” he said. <\/p>\n

He was stranded for about an hour inside his vehicle before being lifted out by firefighters. Podulsky said he decided to stay put in his car after watching two people exit their vehicle and nearly get swept away. <\/p>\n

“[My] car’s done, I think. It’s totalled, because the water was going over the windshield,” Podulsky said. <\/p>\n

\"SeveralThirteen people were rescued Tuesday night along 16th Avenue N.W. after a ‘catastrophic’ water main break. (Submitted by Cody Elliot)<\/p>\n

The break on the Bearspaw south feeder main \u2014 the same source of the break in 2024 \u2014 happened around 8 p.m. Tuesday along 16th Avenue, east of its interchange with Sarcee Trail.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This break involved a section of pipe installed in 1975, and not the replacement pipe received from San Diego to repair the last break, the city said in an update Wednesday.<\/p>\n

It happened due to a \u201crapid drop in pressure,\u201d said Nancy Mackay, the city\u2019s director of water services.<\/p>\n

Water has now been shut off in the affected area. <\/p>\n

Early Wednesday morning, the city issued boil water advisories for parts of Parkdale, Montgomery, Point McKay and West Hillhurst. Water wagons will be deployed to those communities.<\/p>\n

Water remains safe to drink in the remainder of the city, said Susan Henry, chief of the Calgary Emergency Management Agency.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Stage 4 water restrictions are in place, which prohibits outdoor water use for things like flooding rinks or snow-making. <\/p>\n

Calgarians are being asked to reduce their water usage by limiting showers to three minutes or less, flushing toilets only when necessary, and waiting to run dishwashers and washing machines until they are full. <\/p>\n

Bowness resident Josh MacDonald spoke to CBC News from outside a Real Canadian Superstore near 16th Avenue and Sarcee Trail, where he said bottled water was already sold out.<\/p>\n

\"AParts of the communities of Parkdale, Montgomery and Point McKay are under a boil water advisory after Tuesday’s major water main break. (City of Calgary)No warning signs<\/p>\n

Since the 2024 break, the Bearspaw south feeder main has been continuously monitored, but there were no warning signs before this latest break, the city says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe system was working normally at the time of the failure,\u201d said Chris Graham with the city\u2019s infrastructure department, who added there were no indications of any wire snaps<\/a> in the lead-up to the failure. <\/p>\n

Graham said the pipe was being continuously monitored with acoustic fibre optic equipment. <\/p>\n

A former senior infrastructure engineer with Calgary’s water department described the monitoring process as tiny microphones listening 24\/7 for any activity. <\/p>\n

Roy Brander said normally inspectors might hear a series of “pings” weeks or months apart, indicating wires snapping that could lead to a break. <\/p>\n

“For the main to suddenly just rip open like a zipper is just an absolute jaw-dropper, and it’s going to be one for the textbooks,” said Brander, who retired in 2016.<\/p>\n

WATCH | City of Calgary provides an update on the water main break:\"\"<\/p>\n

Calgary water main break update<\/p>\n

City officials give an update about a major water main break that caused flooding and prompted a boil water advisory for parts of Calgary.<\/p>\n

City officials said it was too early to speak to the levels of chloride in the area at the time. Sodium chloride, a form of road salt, is believed to have played a facto<\/a>r in the 2024 break.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The early identification of the location of the break does, however, put the city “days ahead of what happened the previous time around,\u201d Mayor Jeromy Farkas said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mackay said the pipe will need to be drained before digging can begin and the broken section replaced. Then the water will need to be refilled and tested to ensure its safety before the boil water advisory can be lifted.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She gave a timeline of seven to 10 days if there is only one repair to be made, but cautioned the city still needs to fully inspect the severity of the break.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe go fast, but we don’t go so fast that we’re not protecting water quality,\u201d Mackay said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She said emergency adjustments have been made to distribute more water throughout the city from the Glenmore Water Treatment Plant, the smaller of Calgary’s two plants \u2014 something she says was a lesson learned from the last go around. <\/p>\n

\"aThis City of Calgary map shows the main feeder line, indicated in red, that runs through the neighbourhoods of Montgomery and Bowness. That was the pipe that burst in June 2024. Early indications suggest the new break is related. (City of Calgary)\u2018Ticking time bomb\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n

Farkas said about 2,000 homes and 100 businesses have been affected.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not the first time that this has happened. I think Calgarians are going to be asking a lot of questions,\u201d he told CBC Radio\u2019s Calgary Eyeopener.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While he acknowledged the frustrations, he said there are overarching issues that need to be addressed \u2014 chiefly installing a replacement line parallel to the current main.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cUntil we completely replace the pipe, this is a ticking time bomb that Calgarians will continue to live with,\u201d Farkas said at Wednesday\u2019s media availability.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Farkas said he\u2019s expecting the recommendations of an independent review of the 2024 water main break to be released in the coming weeks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He said council is committed to implementing those recommendations so that a third major break does not happen.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Unlike in 2024, this break happened in the winter, when they’re about twice as likely to occur as in the summer, according to Brander. He says that’s because the soil around the pipes expands and contracts as temperatures fluctuate. <\/p>\n

“The recent weather, which spiked down very cold and then very warm, is exactly the kind of thing that could have caused just a small soil movement,” he said. <\/p>\n

And inspections do not paint a full picture of what is happening with the soil around the pipe, Brander said. <\/p>\n

“I think sometimes you do everything you can do and the universe just hates you and sends you some bad luck, and we’re going to live and learn.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"City of Calgary officials say they have identified the location of what they are calling a second \u201ccatastrophic\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":345550,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[1397,90,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-345549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=345549"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345549\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/345550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=345549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=345549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=345549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}