Caution | Outdoor water restrictions in effect

Stage 1 Outdoor Water Restrictions are in effect. Learn more about what you can do during this stage.

Learn more

Critical water main break

July 26, 2024 update

We remain in Stage 1 Outdoor Water Restrictions. 

  • Earlier this week, we turned on an additional pump at the Bearspaw Water Treatment Plant and we continue to closely monitor the pump and our system.
  • In the course of this monitoring, we saw three additional wire snaps in the feeder main yesterday afternoon and overnight, bringing the total to eight since we brought the pipe back into service.
  • This is not sign that a feeder main break is imminent, but since they happened in a fairly short period of time, we want to do some further investigation before we make changes to water restrictions. 
 
  • Under Stage 1 Outdoor Water Restrictions you can now use a sprinkler, hose or in-ground sprinkling system for up to TWO hours a week, on specific days. 
    • Even-numbered addresses can use their sprinkler on Wednesday or Saturday.
    •  Odd-numbered addresses can use their sprinkler on Thursday or Sunday.
  • You can split the two hours over the course of a day, during the designated times, or between the two days you are allowed to water, as long as it does not exceed two hours per week. 

Good to know

Thursday’s water demand was down to 639 million litres, which was likely due to cooler weather.

Livestream

Watch the July 26 livestream

For information on:

  • The status of our monitoring and water distribution system
  • Stage 1 Outdoor Water Restrictions
  • Daily water usage 

Updates daily at 2 p.m. on calgary.ca/live.

About the water main break

On the evening of Wednesday, June 5, The City discovered a large water main break in the Bowness and Montgomery area.

The break was on the Bearspaw South Feeder Main, a critical transmission line that carries most of the water from the Bearspaw Water Treatment Plant into Calgary’s water distribution network.

The initial break and five additional “hot spots” – areas needing emergency repair – were fixed. Since July 2, Outdoor Water Restrictions have been slowly eased as we have been carefully increasing the flow of water through the pipe. Increasing the flow adds pressure and stress to the pipe, so teams are moving through this process cautiously, and doing careful monitoring.

Currently, Calgary remains under Stage 1 outdoor water restrictions.

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