Agree also I hope they don't get screwed around by WCB...I've had a few construction friends have a heck of a rough ride with WCB while rehabilitation was going on.
Well when all eyes are on this job the reason it’s halted is because they are doing an investigation. Ive been working at shouldice all week and construction for years; yes a lot gets brushed away and there are people who fall through the cracks but in this situation they will be alright.
That is likely the employer who was causing a hard time with WCB. The employer is responsible to pay for workers compensation, and they usually do not like to pay wages when work isn’t being conducted. (Not fair for the injured party).
The employer’s WCB rate also goes up when incidents like this happen, in order to bring the rate back down, it takes a very long time or they have to go through programs. It’s a very tricky system.
Let’s hope the city of Calgary will have their backs!
Latest update says 1 released from the hospital, the other is still there but in stable condition.
They were welding a collar when the chain snapped that was holding it apparently
Thanks so much for the update 🤗
Oh man! I mean, I'm glad one is released and the other is stable, but, I really feel for them and truly hope they have a short, rather than long recovery. Shitty, shitty day for them.
For all of you asking why the work isn't ongoing, this is standard procedure in the construction world that we live in today. 2 people were sent to the hospital which means something pretty bad happened, when this happens all work is halted in order to investigate and make sure that more people do not get injured.
First thing post incident is to safe out and then freeze the scene.
The investigation will determine what happened and to allow any additional safeguards to be put in place to prevent a recurrence. This ensures the site is safe to continue working.
Underrated response. Yeah, OHS is probably going to take and record at least a couple hours' worth of statements from other people working on the project while it's still fresh in everyone's minds.
It might seem silly in the face of the city's water supply, but I think it's a pretty important part of accountability towards workers.
I also put out extra buckets in the yard scattered around to catch water for my poor veggie garden. It's hanging on by a thread. My lawn can die but I want my veggies!
While I understand the concern for the workers (who are in hospital but not critical) I think the headline here is hiding a bigger issue:
>Doubling down on the news of the work stoppage, the mayor issued another bit of dire news for Calgarians.
>She said that water consumption increased again, bringing it over the "safe threshold."
>"Our supply is lower than it has been in the last few days," Gondek said. "This morning, we are at a place where we don't have enough of a cushion for emergencies."
>Gondek said it could be that a fire truck arrives at a home in the near future to put out a fire and nothing could be there for firefighters.
This needs to be the lead, people need to be told to reel in usage NOW, rather than be told that the restoration of services might be delayed by a day.
The awareness-raising of this problem overall has been terrible by the city. People who pay attention to local news know about it, but I've come across several people who literally had no idea we are in water restrictions. They should say so on the electronic boards on the highways, advertise it on the radio, make it the front page of newspapers etc. if they really want people to know and reduce consumption. I've seen the electronic highway boards saying we are in a fire ban, why can't they also say "stage 4 water restrictions" "reduce water consumption" etc.
I remember a day or two into the 2013 flood having a conversation w/ a friend who'd had a few days off who was complaining about having to go to work the next day and I had to tell him, "Dude your work is underwater, they're not even gonna let you cross the bridge." The guy had no idea anything had even happened.
Which is to say, yeah, the city can and should be doing better at getting the word out but some people will probably still not hear about it.
That floor was scary as hell, I had a friend who was trapped in his apartment for several days because of where the flooding hit downtown, he couldn't get out. Thankfully he had enough food and bottled water he was okay, but still. I'll never live close enough to the water for flooding to be a risk after that
If you haven't heard about it you live under a rock. The emergency alert went to every cell phone in the city. All the major road signs have it listed as well. Only other channel would be repeating the emergency alerts at this point but I am sure they are careful on over using that method.
With most people getting their information electronically these days, I feel Calgary massively fucked up this entire thing from the beginning.
The day this happened I only found out because of the ~6AM emergency alert, like many people. When trying to look at the Calgary city website, I found an hour old notice that contradicted the emergency alert and a tweet from the city that also contradicted the alert (reduction of inside water usage was voluntary on tweet + website, seemingly mandatory on emergency alert).
I checked throughout the day and there were zero updates until like, what, 7 hours later, when a tweet or something went out saying they were investigating the burst pipe or working on it but no additional information clarifying water usage. Absolutely one of the worst attempts at communication I've seen from a city when a major evolving event was happening.
Could the lack of updates in the first hours have been because they were investigating and had no new info. In the hour or so after AB alert, there was info on news, social media, and city page about what was happening and that water was safe except for boil water in Bowness. Explanations were also given as to limiting indoor use and how to do it.
There was a board just east of Deerfoot on Highway 1 that was displaying a sign saying 'Boil Water Advisory' for most of last week (Haven't gone that route this week, so it might still be there)
Nowhere near Bowness, no mention of reducing water....
My work has like a dozen Ukrainian refugees who hardly speak English. Today watching them all hand wash dishes in the sink I asked if they heard about the restrictions. They had no clue.
We have lot of ESL or people who don’t speak any English in Calgary now so if you aren’t getting that news in your language you might miss it completely
Wouldn’t the emergency alert blasts go out to everyone? Maybe up the recurrence of these, many people probably cleared it and forgot without bothering to read it 🤦♀️
I think the mayor said that we are not in a state of emergency, so I imagine that would be difficult. Might be a good idea to declare an emergency, if we're talking about potentially running out of water and homes burning down...
Edit: yeah 3pm they said again we are not in a state of emergency. Just throwing this out there again.... Maybe we should be?
And all the restrictions business wise are still purely voluntary.
I think the emergency blast goes to most people but I've heard before of some people getting it and others not. Combine that with people clearing and not reading and language barriers I'm sure there are quite a few people who are unaware
The problem is the people not listening or on the Anti-Gondek/City train so they refuse to listen to what the city has to say because conspiracy. I saw someone on our community say they still water their lawn for 10 mins in the morning. This same person has a pool and is very anti-municipality now. Honestly it pisses me off that here we are, my kids haven’t had a proper bath in a week and I’ve done one load of laundry and ran the dishwasher once out of necessity So I can catch up with handwashing with recycled water and this ass is watering their f*cking lawn! And I don’t think they’re the only one.
If people aren’t seeing it on television, chances are they won’t be seeing it on roads radios newspapers. There are many who do not watch/pay attention to any news. Nothing will help them. There has been no problem with city messaging if you check ANY news apps etc, even national.
Which is crazy because they put out emergency alerts to everyone’s phones didn’t they? Sure it didn’t give you many details, but it did say we had a water emergency throughout the entire city
To be fair, a week ago, Gondek also told us to hold off on doing laundry for a week.
Alot of people brought their water usage way down to unsustainable levels, like not doing dishes, no laundry, etc. But there's a limit to how long that can be kept up.
It's true that some of us are doing way more than our share and will have to start using more water soon. (We're going to need to do our first load of laundry here by Sunday, and I will need to change some water in the fish tank or my animals will die.)
Problem is, some have done absolutely nothing, and they won't be starting now. So the city **could** reduce our water usage overall, but likely won't.
What is the city going to do?
If Covid taught me one lesson, it is that there are community-minded people and selfish people and the latter won't do anything for the public good even if you held a gun to their heads.
Fact.
It certainly won’t happen because there would be too many potential issues with it, but…
Water is metered. Wouldn’t it be great if they did an analysis of June 2024 water usage and compared it with eg May & July 2024, as well as June 2023 & 2022.
Should give a glimpse of how ‘distributed’ the share of the burden has been (eg what proportion of households reduced by 25%, 50%, 5%.
Yes. Some have don’t nothing. This morning I walked past a very nice, large house with their underground sprinklers watering their very nice lawn. Someone may not have a functioning fire dept when they need it but at least these people have a green lawn.
Report them right away my dude, it’s a fine starting at $3,000 as of yesterday morning
https://www.calgary.ca/water/drinking-water/stage-four-outdoor-water-restrictions.html
Just try to do half as much water intensive stuff as shower every other day (or half the time, or both). Wait until it’s painful to wash dishes and clothes, then maximize water efficiency. Even if we’re imperfect, if we shoot for 1/2 as much we should easily keep in the safe zone.
I even time shift some tasks. Using the delay cycle on the dishwasher pushes the usage to 2am. In terms of community water pressure, it's less of a drain at that time, pun intended
We are doing laundry as normal. We have a household of 5 (4 adults +1 child) without a large and extensive wardrobe. Basically we run out of clothes in a week and each of our loads is basically full loads.
Yes, this needs to be louder! I work at an automotive repair shop where we do a complementary wash every car after service. We stopped immediately when the crisis started and canceled all the details scheduled.
The first day, all clients understood why.
Yesterday I had a client straight up yell, "I just spent all this money and you couldn't wash the car?!?" When I mentioned why, he was still upset. I had another client mad yesterday and she fully believed that the water restrictions were lifted.
Sigh.
Agree! Message not getting through. I live in Bowness and I don’t know where the miscommunication happened but you would not believe how many people thought the restrictions ONLY applied to Bowness 🤦♀️
Part of that is messaging though from the City. They said 5-7 days initially from their first estimate, which would be today to Saturday. Then they have casually extended it potentially another week without explaining the reasoning.
Initially everyone was saying save water for a week. Most expected it back by about now and we don’t know why it’s delayed another week, and potentially longer with this safety incident.
Their step by step arrow plot has no timelines so is useless.
I totally agree. They need to keep hammering home the message. People just don't get it. And for much (all?) of the city water seems normal. I think people just cannot comprehend the real possibility we could actually just RUN OUT of water and how much of a horrific disaster that would be.
I took my daughter to a doctor's appointment yesterday and told her we had been in swimming lessons but the pool was closed last week and this week and my doctor was like "oh, why is the pool closed?" Is it not obvious?! I was flabbergasted. But apparently people just don't pay attention to news, I guess?
My daughter doesn't "do" the news. She had no idea about the restrictions until we told her. I get that watching the news can be depressing if not aggravating but...
> This needs to be the lead, people need to be told to reel in usage NOW
We also need to start calling out the assholes who think they're being clever by watering their lawns in the middle of the night. Guy next door did it then flipped me off when I reminded him about the restrictions.
If we really want to limit water usage we’d be closing down stuff. Think about all the buildings downtown whose toilets go off on timers or sensors flushing away precious water. I was observing one go off like 5 times while a dude was standing and pissing. *No man does courtesy flushes when pissing.* Naw bro. These fuckers are going off on their own. Even after hours.
The point being, why are residential areas being upheld to austerity measures but business buildings downtown can use all the water and electricity (during blackouts)?
Restaurants should probably be shutting down too.
But nah. It’s always the most tax paying citizens the ones who gotta sacrifice.
Because they aren't asking for a complete stop to using water, they are letting us know that a moderate reduction in personal usage is enough - But it needs to be consistent
Obviously they don't want to impact businesses, because then you get to the point where people are losing hours, owners are losing money etc.
It costs an individual literally nothing to take a 5 minute shower instead of a 10 or 15 minute one, and if every single person in the city did just that, we would be about 80% of the way to where we need to be... WITHOUT having to impact business.
I agree - if we get to a dire situation, where emergency response is truly affected, they SHOULD be forcing businesses to shutter, or operate on reduced hours, but if every individual makes a small sacrifice, then we won't need to go that far.
Stop worrying about what everyone else is doing, and just do the small amount you have been asked to for the good of the city.
No one is buying, they have stopped getting new inventory but they are maintaining the inventory they have. With cat washes, I don’t blame them for staying open but I do blame people who get a car wash unless absolutely necessary. (Like running over a skunk)
It's like these people WANT us to actually run out of water. Why not tell the public how urgent it is we slow down water usage before we all lose water pressure??? I see absolutely no sense in not telling people how serious this delay actually is unless they actually want us in a true state of emergency. What the fuck is going on over at city hall?!
I've literally been worried about this the whole time. My partner and I haven't showered since it happened. Our water consumption has been as low as we could possibly make it. But we're just 2 people and a lot more people need to take the water issue more seriously.
I wouldn’t even bother dude, the amount you are saving is so absolutely minuscule it’s not even funny compared to what is being used on construction sites across the city everyday of the restrictions. Obviously conserve water but not showering for a week is wild
I've been doing some math on it out of curiosity. and it really shouldn't be that difficult.
Typical water use for the city sits at around 620 million litres a day.
They want us to come down to around 450 - 480 million litres a day.
For a city of 1.66 million people that works out at about 85 - 100 litres less per day each.
If you ran the shower and/or faucets for a combined 8 less minutes per day, and didn't flush one of the times you used the washroom per day you would save around 90L (more if you have an older shower head or faucets)
It may not be all that helpful as the restrictions aren't based on upstream supply, but on ability to treat and deliver potable water throughout the city. The Glenmore is probably near normal levels and Bearspaw is being underutilized and probably higher than normal.
It will be helpful when the repair is complete and we're on a watering schedule. Showing how our basin is the same size (and shrinking) while our population is exploding is a good way to get buy-in
They were referring to the potable water reservoirs they are spread throughout the city. They are used because on a normal day the amount of supply from the two treatment plants gets outstripped by peak demand so they allow for a steady supply in the system.
To clarify: When I write "reservoirs" I'm referring to the dozens of places in the city where treated water is pumped to from the Bearspaw/Glenmore plants for storage before it makes its way into people's houses.
There is a open data portal for the city of Calgary that has tons of data, but so far I've been unable to find anything about resivour levels. Would be awesome if they released this data.
I am glad it is shutdown, since there were injuries, the cause needs to be identified and mitigated before more work can proceed. If they forecast work to restart later today it's likely not anything crazy. No one gets paid enough to get hurt at work, especially these days. The push push push mentality gets people killed/injured for no reason, and if you don't care about people, it just increases overall costs (WCB premiums for the city / their contractors) and delays schedule (water later). If it's critical work it needs to be done right, the first time.
Working with underground utilities, I'm surprised the city quoted a week for repairs. I would have said 10 days for repairs to account for dewatering, removal of old pipe, prep and install for new pipe, QC/QA of work done, and contingencies, then X days for testing/flushing/filling etc. (don't know that stuff myself). City should have quoted 10+X days MINIMUM for things to get back to in service operation, which is what 99.9% of people understand/care about/want to know. I'm sure at least one person ordered sod thinking they could water it tomorrow, and I don't blame them if they have no experience with this type of work.
This does show that we have all our eggs in one basket when it comes to drinking water. Perhaps it's time to look at more efficient uses of treated vs untreated water. How many home owners water their yards and flush toilets with some of the worlds best drinking water??
wouldn't that necessitate the construction of separate piping for untreated and treated water?
but i have always been a fan of those prison toilets that have the washbasins connected to the toilet tank
When this first happened my initial question was 'why on earth do fire trucks use treated water instead of untreated?!'
Then I realized that it would require an entire multi million dollar network of pipes and pumps to transport untreated water through the city for the sole purpose of a \*possible\* fire...
I wish grey water and sprinklers would be baked into the building code. As in, all new builds must have a grey water and sprinklers systems. The grey water system would reduce potable water consumption overall. The sprinkler system, although tied into the regular treated water mains, I believe would also reduce water used by the fire fighters. If the sprinklers are actively suppressing the fire the whole time while the fire trucks are enroute, then they shouldn't have to use as much fresh water from the hydrant. Or maybe that would just even out as the sprinklers are running the whole time anyway. Have to think on that more. Definitely the grey water systems though
> wouldn't that necessitate the construction of separate piping for untreated and treated water?
Yes, there's no real practical world where that's workable.
If you've got the budget on new builds you can have various water-recycling/saving systems. There tend to always be trade-offs though - to save water you either need to spend more money upfront, or spend more in ongoing energy costs.
All of Paris was designed with 2 water supplies. They wash the streets water plants with river water, and potable water is for drinking.
It's not hard. But it does require thinking more than one election ahead.
Yes, with the water transport technology available right now separate piping for drinking/non-drinking would be required. That would be a huge undertaking, even if it only applied to new greenfield developments. Even with insane taxation and resident buy-in it wouldn't happen.
On the lighter side of things, switching houses to prison toilet/basin combos is a good start. But why stop there? Make a big basin and have a bath/toilet/sink/shower combo, "home of the waffle stomp" can be the new city motto.
Not really surprising. Just like the original "flatten the curve" narrative with Covid you start with a short period and then keep extending it.
People are less likely to revolt than giving a much longer time period at the beginning. Similar to the "just round the corner" thought process when going on a long trip or hike. It gives people an achievable goal with an end in sight.
Some muddled wording of the timeline, they have said 5-7 days to fix the pipe, then a few days later they said 5-7 days because the pipe needs to be flushed and filled after the repair, then they said 5-7 days for service to be restored (which includes time to test samples)..
and realistically, we are still looking at 5-7 minimum days to get things back to normal
I work landscaping, all sod is delayed as per water restrictions. We are only laying sod tomorrow as there is a huge storm rolling in so it should be fine.
> This does show that we have all our eggs in one basket when it comes to drinking water.
If this was true, you wouldn't have any water at your home right now.
You do, so your statement is verifiable false.
They keep saying that people should reduce usage in the city but they only sent out one emergency alert last Thursday. How are the 80% of people who don’t check the news supposed to even know they should be conserving water still?
Communication has been terrible. I’ve restricted water like crazy - but day 2, I couldn’t find any information regarding further restrictions. We needed more emergency communications, so we ALL knew what was happening. The city also needed to be more transparent, with how long it would take to restore water. Putting off showering and laundry for a week, hadn’t been enough - I feel angry we weren’t told the truth. We also need more than 1 pipeline for drinking water. It’s unconscionable to put over a million people at risk, because infrastructure hasn’t been built to keep pace with the population increase. If another pipeline isn’t built, we are guaranteed to have more leaks. The city first put out a notice that the pipe had a 50 year lifespan, and it was 49 years old. THEN they told us that under ideal conditions, it can last 100 years. Calgary weather isn’t ideal conditions. It’s not fair to gamble with the drinking water, of a city (and suburbs), the size of Calgary. Build a second pipe, before we are without water again (maybe when it’s -30)! Also, have high water industries reduce their usage, so we have water for emergencies.
100% agree. I've spoken to many people who thought it's been dealt with a while ago.
I've actively been searching for updates to find out, like another poster commented. Without doing that I wouldn't have had any information since the alert I think
Hilariously, I saw this on tik tok before I saw it anywhere else.
By the way, surprising no one, tik tok comments are cancer. 90% of the comments were blaming the mayor for the injured workers like she was the one wielding the chain
I really hope it wasn’t trench collapse related. Shit is scary. As a J man plumber/gasfitter that’s gotta be the easiest and worst way to go. Happened to a kid just recently and was fatal. Not gunna name names but a quick google search will get you there. Sad stuff.
Poor management on the citys part with respect to water allocation. If everyone cuts water the first few days and no one does laundry dishes etc... There will be a point where people need to start using more water again to wash stuff. Rather than telling everyone to cut back everything, they should have a plan for rotating days to do certain actions for various sectors of the city.... Like se wash clothes Monday, sw Tuesday, nw Wednesday ne Thursday... Or something to thst effect. I know its easier said then done but consumption smoothing is key and any guidance to steer it that way would be tremendous.
Also... This is why massive rapid population growth is an issue. What would things be like if we had another 200000 people and this happened.
From the beginning communication and planning on this issue has been horrendous. I hope there's a post-mortem where they can analyze where they went wrong and put in better communication practices for future events.
Somehow someone will find a way to blame Trudeau.
He is omnipresent doing nefarious deeds across Alberta specifically according to the conspiracy folks.
Problem: if you aren’t a news reading kinda person, you might not know that we’re in a water restriction situation… put signs everywhere. Ask businesses to print a sign off. Send a notice on the garbage day app. Spam the hell out of people.
So many people have no idea about the restrictions!!!
I hope the workers both recover fully and have no lingering effects.
You would think with such a high profile repair safety would be taken way more seriously and they would work their hardest to avoid any injuries or safety issues that would cause more delay. How did this even happen?
Tale as old as time in construction. Lots of pressure on the workers to get the work done. Management ignores workers taking risks to get the work done, workers get injured and management blames the workers for not working safely.
Why just assume that this is the case? You have no idea.
I manage workers. Under OH&S, if I ignore workers taking risks, and serious injury, or worse occurs, and the investigation finds I did so, I can face personal fines in the hundreds of thousands, and even criminal conviction. They don't fuck about. Anyone in a management position with the City is well aware of this.
Sometimes, things just happen despite robust safety measures. The City has industry leading safety protocols, but humans are human, and every job is dynamic, especially unusual ones like this.
Never good to hear about workers being injured on the job. Hope they’re okay and will recover quickly. That being said, this entire episode has made the city look really bad, and they didn’t have a good image to begin with.
> That being said, this entire episode has made the city look really bad, and they didn’t have a good image to begin with.
Other than a stumble on the communication at the beginning how is it making the city look bad?
The stumble on communication has been for a hell of a lot longer than just at the beginning. They issued ONE alert. This should be an everyday thing at 8AM to people's phones informing them of the situation, progress, and reminding them to continue to ration water along with recommendations for doing so. But they're not doing that. Also the idea that all of this should primarily fall on people at home instead of businesses is absurd. The fact that I'm up to 3 loads of laundry and eating off of fucking paper plates like a vagabond meanwhile businesses go on like business as usual irks me to no end. And I will be doing my laundry over the coming days because who the hell knows what's going to happen with this. Are we going to run out of water because nitwits keep watering their grass? Is the repair going to take well into next week? Like there gets to be a point where my altruism and belief in working together for the common collective breaks and when that happens I will look out for myself and my family first. Clearly nobody else will.
As far as the other stuff making this city look bad our crumbling infrastructure, lack of preparedness for emergencies, and the fact that we have 2 water treatment plants for a population that continues to climb and we really need a third one are all valid criticisms. But that last one won't happen. Instead we'll build another arena to watch the Flames lose every year.
As discussed further up the thread, I think the communication is an ongoing fumble tbh. Unless I specifically look into it, the only communication I would have received is the emergency alert that happened a few days ago. A lot of people don't seem particularly aware of the situation either
Emergency preparedness.
I’m sorry but the city should have emergency procedures specifically for anticipated incidents and emergencies such as wildfire, flood, infrastructure failures etc. that includes having the resources on hand that are necessary to quickly mitigate and fix this issue that could and should have been anticipated.
There is no conceivable excuse otherwise. As soon as the water main broke the emergency procedures should have kicked in and been communicated to the citizens. Metrics, specific responsibilities and directions for citizens to follow and how those steps will mitigate further disaster, what steps/phases are required for the city to repair the problem, which phase they are on, the expected outcome of those phases etc etc. I could easily go on and list the dozens of basic emergency preparedness actions, but you get the point.
Okay rather than scolding us like children for using showers and doing laundry… why don’t they start closing non essential businesses with heavy water usage? If this is really an emergency then what is more important, a restaurant’s ability to run an industrial dishwasher or an individual’s hygiene at home?
But yelling and screaming about it on the internet is child-like. (Not you, the original commenter)
Is there a word to describe this mentality? Projection?
"Okay rather than scolding us like children for using showers and doing laundry… "
This isnt a thing, people were asked just to take shorter showers and launder full loads.
Me taking it to the extreme and not using any water except toilet flushes, hand washing, drinking water, and occasional dishes. I really don't wanna run out of water
You'd have a different opinion if you were a small business owner and that was your livelihood. It sucks for everyone, but if it puts food on your table you're going to do your best to adhere to the restrictions while carrying on.
The city has options to provide temporary relief funding to businesses. They have explored it in many other circumstances. I think they recently discussed this or did this related to the road closures in Marda Loop impacting business? Either way, the conversation should continue and I think it would be applicable here.
Erm... perhaps "the city should start paying businesses from an emergency fund so that ~~you can take as a long of a shower as you want?"~~ those business don't burn to the ground when the fire trucks roll up to their fire and the hydrants run dry?
> a restaurant’s ability to run an industrial dishwasher or an individual’s hygiene at home?
How much water does an average restaurant use?
And they never said don't shower or clean yourself.
Stop spreading falsehoods.
>Okay rather than scolding us like children for using showers and doing laundry
Absolutely did not happen at any point.
>why don’t they start closing non essential businesses with heavy water usage? If this is really an emergency then what is more important, a restaurant’s ability to run an industrial dishwasher or an individual’s hygiene at home?
The simple answer is that closing businesses means more people not getting paid. Seeing how people are already struggling with the rising cost of living, cutting people's livelihood should be a worse case scenario action. Businesses should be, and were asked to reduce water usage where possible.
Closing down businesses during a recession is in no one’s best interest. Asking these businesses to limit water just like the people in the city is a reasonable request imo. All non essential businesses have been shut down to the best of my knowledge (pools, laundromats, etc)
I'd say I've probably reduced water consumption at my house by 50% or more and we're still managing to maintain decent hygiene. Daily long showers aren't necessary to maintain hygiene. We've been getting by just fine with 2 min navy showers and cabin rules on the toilets. It's clear that many people aren't bothering to do even the bare minimum to help. Businesses have been through enough the last few years, let's not start advocating to shut them all down unless if becomes absolutely necessary.
>a restaurant’s ability to run an industrial dishwasher or an individual’s hygiene at home?
Considering restaurant workers need a source of income, the answer is easy, restaurants.
Says alot about you if you want to sacrifice these people's livelihoods just so you can take a 25% longer shower.
Yeah let's put tens of thousands of people out of work so that you can water your lawn.... There are zero restrictions for doing laundry, taking showers, or personal hygiene. Stop making up a fake situation.
No kidding, how many more houses are there than businesses in Calgary? But what is *essential*? Restaurants and car washes? Or being able to shower at home?
Car washes recycle their water, golf courses allegedly use non potable but I do agree with you. Same thing in Lethbridge with McCain's, Cavendish etc during prior periods of restrictions.
They should be saying don't shower. They should be saying don't do your laundry. The situation is dire and the city is basically saying "you should really maybe please think about reducing your residential water usage a bit, if it doesn't inconvenience you too much. Don't worry we've reached out to business too and they're mumble mumble these are not the droids you're looking for facts and data I have no idea what you mean".
It's ok I imagine people will understand when (if, hopefully not) the city is burning and we can't put it out.
The mayor was wrong when she said that, it's more like 52%. You may want to verify your information.
[https://www.calgary.ca/content/dam/www/uep/water/documents/water-documents/water-efficiency-plan.pdf](https://www.calgary.ca/content/dam/www/uep/water/documents/water-documents/water-efficiency-plan.pdf)
>Residential customers comprise the vast majority (92 per cent) of water service connections in Calgary and account for 52 per cent of demand. Industrial, commercial and institutional users represent only seven per cent of the total customer base but use 34 per cent of the water. The remainder is distributed to wholesale customers, consumed in delivering City services or lost through system leakage.
Edit: Newer reports say it's closer to 58% residential. Oooooh facts and numbers.
Sure, and how about all of the restaurant/etc employees who won't get paid with such a shutdown get their regular income taken from your personal bank account?
We should never return to closing 'non-essential' businesses, because that means only the big corps get to stay open. If we need to conserve water that badly, close them all down for a day or two.
Commercial use is 35% of the cities usage. We are the main users so it makes senses to ask us to reduce our usage while asking commercially do the same. No business can close down for two weeks in peak season (especially now after the whole covid thing) they’d be out of business.
Because haulting thousands of people's source of income carries way more consequences than not watering your lawn and taking a shorter showers.. jfc you people just love finding a reason to be outraged.
What do you think invoking a LSoE will add in this situation? A local state of emergency grants additional powers to the local government. Powers such as:
* put into operation an emergency plan or program;
* authorize or require a local authority to put into effect an emergency plan or program for the municipality;
* acquire or utilize any real or personal property considered necessary to prevent, combat, or alleviate the effects of an emergency or disaster;
* authorize or require any qualified person to render aid of a type the person is qualified to provide;
* control or prohibit travel to or from any area of Alberta;
* provide for the restoration of essential facilities and the distribution of essential supplies and provide, maintain, and coordinate emergency medical, welfare, and other essential services in any part of Alberta;
* order the evacuation of persons and the removal of livestock and personal property from any area of Alberta that is or may be affected by a disaster and make arrangements for the adequate care and protection of those persons or livestock and of the personal property;
* authorize the entry into any building or on any land, without warrant, by any person in the course of implementing an emergency plan or program;
* cause the demolition or removal of any trees, structures, or crops if the demolition or removal is necessary or appropriate in order to reach the scene of a disaster, or to attempt to forestall its occurrence or to combat its progress;
* procure or fix prices for food, clothing, fuel, equipment, medical supplies, or other essential supplies and the use of any property, services, resources, or equipment within any part of Alberta for the duration of the state of emergency;
* authorize the conscription of persons needed to meet an emergency.
None of the above are required to currently deal with the water situation. The City is dealing with the emergency without invoking a LSoE.
Is it possible for the city to apply an extra charge for households and businesses which use over a certain about of litres?
My reasoning is, while a certain percentage of people are going without showers and laundry, others are not altering their consumption at all. If altruism isn’t an incentive, perhaps knowing that there will be additional charges over and above their regular bill might steer more people in the right direction.
It’s probably too complicated to put into place, I imagine.
Tricky when volume is measured at the building level.
No way to really allocate water per person.
My monthly water use is probably 4 or 5 m3, which is way lower than another household with more people.
This isn’t them taking the morning off to grab breakfast, two people went to hospital. It makes perfect sense that they shut down for a preliminary investigation, even if it’s just to make sure that the condition that caused two people to be seriously hurt doesn’t exist anymore
And there has never been a ban on washing your clothes or doing dishes.
> Eventually people need to start washing their clothes and cleaning dishes.
People were never told to stop washing their clothes and cleaning their dishes.
They were told to wait until you have a full load of clothes. Or a full dish washer. And try to do it off hours.
>Seems excessive that they will delay this another 24 hours if this is as extreme a situation as has been communicated.
Two people got hurt so bad on the job site they were sent to hospital! You want to risk other people's live because you want to get back to watering your lawn?
How could you possibly complain about a minor delay and inconvenience when people have been hurt! Everyone should always go home at the end of their day safely and in good health no matter what the job is.
We were never told not to do those things. Only to be as efficient as reasonably possible.
Wait an extra day or two and do as full a load as you can.
Recycle water intelligently and don't be wasteful. No one is saying be stinky and don't dishes at all.
I hope the workers recover fully, shiity thing to have happened.
Agree also I hope they don't get screwed around by WCB...I've had a few construction friends have a heck of a rough ride with WCB while rehabilitation was going on.
I really hope they are treated well with regards to WCB, we have all heard some nightmare stories about WCB. What a shitty day for them .
Well when all eyes are on this job the reason it’s halted is because they are doing an investigation. Ive been working at shouldice all week and construction for years; yes a lot gets brushed away and there are people who fall through the cracks but in this situation they will be alright.
That is likely the employer who was causing a hard time with WCB. The employer is responsible to pay for workers compensation, and they usually do not like to pay wages when work isn’t being conducted. (Not fair for the injured party). The employer’s WCB rate also goes up when incidents like this happen, in order to bring the rate back down, it takes a very long time or they have to go through programs. It’s a very tricky system. Let’s hope the city of Calgary will have their backs!
Latest update says 1 released from the hospital, the other is still there but in stable condition. They were welding a collar when the chain snapped that was holding it apparently
Thanks so much for the update 🤗 Oh man! I mean, I'm glad one is released and the other is stable, but, I really feel for them and truly hope they have a short, rather than long recovery. Shitty, shitty day for them.
For all of you asking why the work isn't ongoing, this is standard procedure in the construction world that we live in today. 2 people were sent to the hospital which means something pretty bad happened, when this happens all work is halted in order to investigate and make sure that more people do not get injured.
If they opened it back up immediately and injured more people it would be a parade of "Well obviously that would happen" comments Safety is trust
First thing post incident is to safe out and then freeze the scene. The investigation will determine what happened and to allow any additional safeguards to be put in place to prevent a recurrence. This ensures the site is safe to continue working.
I guarantee that all the shitheels on here crying for work to resume have never done a days construction work in their lives.
Was gonna say. 👊💥👍
Bingo.
Yep. Always from people who have never broken in a pair of steel toe boots before.
Oh Jesus. I hope they're okay
A 'safety stand-down'......an investigation takes place, witness statements taken, and area must be cleared safe until work once again commences.
People should consider this situation lucky that it’s not shut down longer
OH&S and WCB investigations
Underrated response. Yeah, OHS is probably going to take and record at least a couple hours' worth of statements from other people working on the project while it's still fresh in everyone's minds. It might seem silly in the face of the city's water supply, but I think it's a pretty important part of accountability towards workers.
Slim chance they will see this, but thank-you to all the workers for fixing this problem.
You’re welcome! Long hours and a lot of stress. But it’s good to see the employees and citizens come together in all of this
Lots of rain rolling In this weekend folks, no need to water the lawns as nature will do it for you. Pass along the message!
Heck, in half tempted to strip down and have a shower in the rain an at this point. Lol.
"I'm suuuuudsing in the rain...."
And put some buckets under your downspouts to catch extra water for your plants!
I also put out extra buckets in the yard scattered around to catch water for my poor veggie garden. It's hanging on by a thread. My lawn can die but I want my veggies!
I’d prefer rain all week vs. My weekend but I’ll make an exception for my poor lawn!
While I understand the concern for the workers (who are in hospital but not critical) I think the headline here is hiding a bigger issue: >Doubling down on the news of the work stoppage, the mayor issued another bit of dire news for Calgarians. >She said that water consumption increased again, bringing it over the "safe threshold." >"Our supply is lower than it has been in the last few days," Gondek said. "This morning, we are at a place where we don't have enough of a cushion for emergencies." >Gondek said it could be that a fire truck arrives at a home in the near future to put out a fire and nothing could be there for firefighters. This needs to be the lead, people need to be told to reel in usage NOW, rather than be told that the restoration of services might be delayed by a day.
The awareness-raising of this problem overall has been terrible by the city. People who pay attention to local news know about it, but I've come across several people who literally had no idea we are in water restrictions. They should say so on the electronic boards on the highways, advertise it on the radio, make it the front page of newspapers etc. if they really want people to know and reduce consumption. I've seen the electronic highway boards saying we are in a fire ban, why can't they also say "stage 4 water restrictions" "reduce water consumption" etc.
I remember a day or two into the 2013 flood having a conversation w/ a friend who'd had a few days off who was complaining about having to go to work the next day and I had to tell him, "Dude your work is underwater, they're not even gonna let you cross the bridge." The guy had no idea anything had even happened. Which is to say, yeah, the city can and should be doing better at getting the word out but some people will probably still not hear about it.
That floor was scary as hell, I had a friend who was trapped in his apartment for several days because of where the flooding hit downtown, he couldn't get out. Thankfully he had enough food and bottled water he was okay, but still. I'll never live close enough to the water for flooding to be a risk after that
Phone alert updates … we all got those haha 🤣
Not everyone did: my wife never received the alert.
I didn't actually.
If you haven't heard about it you live under a rock. The emergency alert went to every cell phone in the city. All the major road signs have it listed as well. Only other channel would be repeating the emergency alerts at this point but I am sure they are careful on over using that method.
I mean I’m well aware of it but my cell phone was very much in the city and very much did not get an alert.
I've seen the water restrictions on the highway boards. I've also been out of town for a few days so maybe they removed it?
With most people getting their information electronically these days, I feel Calgary massively fucked up this entire thing from the beginning. The day this happened I only found out because of the ~6AM emergency alert, like many people. When trying to look at the Calgary city website, I found an hour old notice that contradicted the emergency alert and a tweet from the city that also contradicted the alert (reduction of inside water usage was voluntary on tweet + website, seemingly mandatory on emergency alert). I checked throughout the day and there were zero updates until like, what, 7 hours later, when a tweet or something went out saying they were investigating the burst pipe or working on it but no additional information clarifying water usage. Absolutely one of the worst attempts at communication I've seen from a city when a major evolving event was happening.
Could the lack of updates in the first hours have been because they were investigating and had no new info. In the hour or so after AB alert, there was info on news, social media, and city page about what was happening and that water was safe except for boil water in Bowness. Explanations were also given as to limiting indoor use and how to do it.
There was a board just east of Deerfoot on Highway 1 that was displaying a sign saying 'Boil Water Advisory' for most of last week (Haven't gone that route this week, so it might still be there) Nowhere near Bowness, no mention of reducing water....
My work has like a dozen Ukrainian refugees who hardly speak English. Today watching them all hand wash dishes in the sink I asked if they heard about the restrictions. They had no clue. We have lot of ESL or people who don’t speak any English in Calgary now so if you aren’t getting that news in your language you might miss it completely
Wouldn’t the emergency alert blasts go out to everyone? Maybe up the recurrence of these, many people probably cleared it and forgot without bothering to read it 🤦♀️
I think the mayor said that we are not in a state of emergency, so I imagine that would be difficult. Might be a good idea to declare an emergency, if we're talking about potentially running out of water and homes burning down... Edit: yeah 3pm they said again we are not in a state of emergency. Just throwing this out there again.... Maybe we should be? And all the restrictions business wise are still purely voluntary.
I saw the do it yourself car washes with plenty of cars using their services. Made me second guess my once every 2 days showers.
I think the emergency blast goes to most people but I've heard before of some people getting it and others not. Combine that with people clearing and not reading and language barriers I'm sure there are quite a few people who are unaware
The problem is the people not listening or on the Anti-Gondek/City train so they refuse to listen to what the city has to say because conspiracy. I saw someone on our community say they still water their lawn for 10 mins in the morning. This same person has a pool and is very anti-municipality now. Honestly it pisses me off that here we are, my kids haven’t had a proper bath in a week and I’ve done one load of laundry and ran the dishwasher once out of necessity So I can catch up with handwashing with recycled water and this ass is watering their f*cking lawn! And I don’t think they’re the only one.
And maybe close car washes....I was getting air for my tires and the coin wash there had about 5 or 6 cars getting washed.
If people aren’t seeing it on television, chances are they won’t be seeing it on roads radios newspapers. There are many who do not watch/pay attention to any news. Nothing will help them. There has been no problem with city messaging if you check ANY news apps etc, even national.
I’ve seen it on a few boards through out the city
Which is crazy because they put out emergency alerts to everyone’s phones didn’t they? Sure it didn’t give you many details, but it did say we had a water emergency throughout the entire city
Name checks out
Did they somehow miss the emergency alert on Thursday last week?
To be fair, a week ago, Gondek also told us to hold off on doing laundry for a week. Alot of people brought their water usage way down to unsustainable levels, like not doing dishes, no laundry, etc. But there's a limit to how long that can be kept up.
It's true that some of us are doing way more than our share and will have to start using more water soon. (We're going to need to do our first load of laundry here by Sunday, and I will need to change some water in the fish tank or my animals will die.) Problem is, some have done absolutely nothing, and they won't be starting now. So the city **could** reduce our water usage overall, but likely won't.
What is the city going to do? If Covid taught me one lesson, it is that there are community-minded people and selfish people and the latter won't do anything for the public good even if you held a gun to their heads.
Fact. It certainly won’t happen because there would be too many potential issues with it, but… Water is metered. Wouldn’t it be great if they did an analysis of June 2024 water usage and compared it with eg May & July 2024, as well as June 2023 & 2022. Should give a glimpse of how ‘distributed’ the share of the burden has been (eg what proportion of households reduced by 25%, 50%, 5%.
Yes. Some have don’t nothing. This morning I walked past a very nice, large house with their underground sprinklers watering their very nice lawn. Someone may not have a functioning fire dept when they need it but at least these people have a green lawn.
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If I leave town for more then 3 days, I turn off the water to the house. Mostly because I don't want to come home to a swimming pool.
Glad to hear they are trying. The ones I saw are definitely home and not elderly so pretty sure they are aware and just don’t care
Did you call it in? At least they’ll get a warning (which could lead to a fine if ignored)
Report them right away my dude, it’s a fine starting at $3,000 as of yesterday morning https://www.calgary.ca/water/drinking-water/stage-four-outdoor-water-restrictions.html
True story. We did 2 “emergency” loads today. Now we’re back at being in Dune.
Yup going to have to do some laundry pretty soon here too..
I’m running out of clean clothes. Get that thing welded back up
You're allowed to do a full, urgent load of laundry
Just try to do half as much water intensive stuff as shower every other day (or half the time, or both). Wait until it’s painful to wash dishes and clothes, then maximize water efficiency. Even if we’re imperfect, if we shoot for 1/2 as much we should easily keep in the safe zone.
I even time shift some tasks. Using the delay cycle on the dishwasher pushes the usage to 2am. In terms of community water pressure, it's less of a drain at that time, pun intended
We are doing laundry as normal. We have a household of 5 (4 adults +1 child) without a large and extensive wardrobe. Basically we run out of clothes in a week and each of our loads is basically full loads.
You and me both! I actually counted my underwear and socks. What I wear on top of that is going to get creative!
I’m just gonna buy some new ones. I need the anyways
im just wearing dirty shit lol.
Yes, this needs to be louder! I work at an automotive repair shop where we do a complementary wash every car after service. We stopped immediately when the crisis started and canceled all the details scheduled. The first day, all clients understood why. Yesterday I had a client straight up yell, "I just spent all this money and you couldn't wash the car?!?" When I mentioned why, he was still upset. I had another client mad yesterday and she fully believed that the water restrictions were lifted. Sigh.
Agree! Message not getting through. I live in Bowness and I don’t know where the miscommunication happened but you would not believe how many people thought the restrictions ONLY applied to Bowness 🤦♀️
Part of that is messaging though from the City. They said 5-7 days initially from their first estimate, which would be today to Saturday. Then they have casually extended it potentially another week without explaining the reasoning. Initially everyone was saying save water for a week. Most expected it back by about now and we don’t know why it’s delayed another week, and potentially longer with this safety incident. Their step by step arrow plot has no timelines so is useless.
I think when the boil water advisory was lifted a lot of people took that as problem over
I totally agree. They need to keep hammering home the message. People just don't get it. And for much (all?) of the city water seems normal. I think people just cannot comprehend the real possibility we could actually just RUN OUT of water and how much of a horrific disaster that would be. I took my daughter to a doctor's appointment yesterday and told her we had been in swimming lessons but the pool was closed last week and this week and my doctor was like "oh, why is the pool closed?" Is it not obvious?! I was flabbergasted. But apparently people just don't pay attention to news, I guess?
My daughter doesn't "do" the news. She had no idea about the restrictions until we told her. I get that watching the news can be depressing if not aggravating but...
> This needs to be the lead, people need to be told to reel in usage NOW We also need to start calling out the assholes who think they're being clever by watering their lawns in the middle of the night. Guy next door did it then flipped me off when I reminded him about the restrictions.
If we really want to limit water usage we’d be closing down stuff. Think about all the buildings downtown whose toilets go off on timers or sensors flushing away precious water. I was observing one go off like 5 times while a dude was standing and pissing. *No man does courtesy flushes when pissing.* Naw bro. These fuckers are going off on their own. Even after hours. The point being, why are residential areas being upheld to austerity measures but business buildings downtown can use all the water and electricity (during blackouts)? Restaurants should probably be shutting down too. But nah. It’s always the most tax paying citizens the ones who gotta sacrifice.
Because they aren't asking for a complete stop to using water, they are letting us know that a moderate reduction in personal usage is enough - But it needs to be consistent Obviously they don't want to impact businesses, because then you get to the point where people are losing hours, owners are losing money etc. It costs an individual literally nothing to take a 5 minute shower instead of a 10 or 15 minute one, and if every single person in the city did just that, we would be about 80% of the way to where we need to be... WITHOUT having to impact business. I agree - if we get to a dire situation, where emergency response is truly affected, they SHOULD be forcing businesses to shutter, or operate on reduced hours, but if every individual makes a small sacrifice, then we won't need to go that far. Stop worrying about what everyone else is doing, and just do the small amount you have been asked to for the good of the city.
Agreed. I was going to do a load of laundry today, but reading that means I’ll figure out how to get by a bit longer.
Need to crack down on all outdoor water usage with fines.
Maybe I need to increase pee threshold to 4/flush and poo to 2/flush now.
Sounds like you are already doing much more than some people!
I’d love to see the garden centres stop.
No one is buying, they have stopped getting new inventory but they are maintaining the inventory they have. With cat washes, I don’t blame them for staying open but I do blame people who get a car wash unless absolutely necessary. (Like running over a skunk)
My cat has not run over a skunk in years.
It's like these people WANT us to actually run out of water. Why not tell the public how urgent it is we slow down water usage before we all lose water pressure??? I see absolutely no sense in not telling people how serious this delay actually is unless they actually want us in a true state of emergency. What the fuck is going on over at city hall?!
I've literally been worried about this the whole time. My partner and I haven't showered since it happened. Our water consumption has been as low as we could possibly make it. But we're just 2 people and a lot more people need to take the water issue more seriously.
I wouldn’t even bother dude, the amount you are saving is so absolutely minuscule it’s not even funny compared to what is being used on construction sites across the city everyday of the restrictions. Obviously conserve water but not showering for a week is wild
I've been doing some math on it out of curiosity. and it really shouldn't be that difficult. Typical water use for the city sits at around 620 million litres a day. They want us to come down to around 450 - 480 million litres a day. For a city of 1.66 million people that works out at about 85 - 100 litres less per day each. If you ran the shower and/or faucets for a combined 8 less minutes per day, and didn't flush one of the times you used the washroom per day you would save around 90L (more if you have an older shower head or faucets)
Does the city monitor the levels at all the reservoirs? Does it release that data to the public?
It may not be all that helpful as the restrictions aren't based on upstream supply, but on ability to treat and deliver potable water throughout the city. The Glenmore is probably near normal levels and Bearspaw is being underutilized and probably higher than normal. It will be helpful when the repair is complete and we're on a watering schedule. Showing how our basin is the same size (and shrinking) while our population is exploding is a good way to get buy-in
They were referring to the potable water reservoirs they are spread throughout the city. They are used because on a normal day the amount of supply from the two treatment plants gets outstripped by peak demand so they allow for a steady supply in the system.
To clarify: When I write "reservoirs" I'm referring to the dozens of places in the city where treated water is pumped to from the Bearspaw/Glenmore plants for storage before it makes its way into people's houses.
There is a open data portal for the city of Calgary that has tons of data, but so far I've been unable to find anything about resivour levels. Would be awesome if they released this data.
I am glad it is shutdown, since there were injuries, the cause needs to be identified and mitigated before more work can proceed. If they forecast work to restart later today it's likely not anything crazy. No one gets paid enough to get hurt at work, especially these days. The push push push mentality gets people killed/injured for no reason, and if you don't care about people, it just increases overall costs (WCB premiums for the city / their contractors) and delays schedule (water later). If it's critical work it needs to be done right, the first time. Working with underground utilities, I'm surprised the city quoted a week for repairs. I would have said 10 days for repairs to account for dewatering, removal of old pipe, prep and install for new pipe, QC/QA of work done, and contingencies, then X days for testing/flushing/filling etc. (don't know that stuff myself). City should have quoted 10+X days MINIMUM for things to get back to in service operation, which is what 99.9% of people understand/care about/want to know. I'm sure at least one person ordered sod thinking they could water it tomorrow, and I don't blame them if they have no experience with this type of work. This does show that we have all our eggs in one basket when it comes to drinking water. Perhaps it's time to look at more efficient uses of treated vs untreated water. How many home owners water their yards and flush toilets with some of the worlds best drinking water??
wouldn't that necessitate the construction of separate piping for untreated and treated water? but i have always been a fan of those prison toilets that have the washbasins connected to the toilet tank
When this first happened my initial question was 'why on earth do fire trucks use treated water instead of untreated?!' Then I realized that it would require an entire multi million dollar network of pipes and pumps to transport untreated water through the city for the sole purpose of a \*possible\* fire...
I wish grey water and sprinklers would be baked into the building code. As in, all new builds must have a grey water and sprinklers systems. The grey water system would reduce potable water consumption overall. The sprinkler system, although tied into the regular treated water mains, I believe would also reduce water used by the fire fighters. If the sprinklers are actively suppressing the fire the whole time while the fire trucks are enroute, then they shouldn't have to use as much fresh water from the hydrant. Or maybe that would just even out as the sprinklers are running the whole time anyway. Have to think on that more. Definitely the grey water systems though
> wouldn't that necessitate the construction of separate piping for untreated and treated water? Yes, there's no real practical world where that's workable. If you've got the budget on new builds you can have various water-recycling/saving systems. There tend to always be trade-offs though - to save water you either need to spend more money upfront, or spend more in ongoing energy costs.
All of Paris was designed with 2 water supplies. They wash the streets water plants with river water, and potable water is for drinking. It's not hard. But it does require thinking more than one election ahead.
Yes, with the water transport technology available right now separate piping for drinking/non-drinking would be required. That would be a huge undertaking, even if it only applied to new greenfield developments. Even with insane taxation and resident buy-in it wouldn't happen. On the lighter side of things, switching houses to prison toilet/basin combos is a good start. But why stop there? Make a big basin and have a bath/toilet/sink/shower combo, "home of the waffle stomp" can be the new city motto.
Not really surprising. Just like the original "flatten the curve" narrative with Covid you start with a short period and then keep extending it. People are less likely to revolt than giving a much longer time period at the beginning. Similar to the "just round the corner" thought process when going on a long trip or hike. It gives people an achievable goal with an end in sight.
Some muddled wording of the timeline, they have said 5-7 days to fix the pipe, then a few days later they said 5-7 days because the pipe needs to be flushed and filled after the repair, then they said 5-7 days for service to be restored (which includes time to test samples).. and realistically, we are still looking at 5-7 minimum days to get things back to normal
I work landscaping, all sod is delayed as per water restrictions. We are only laying sod tomorrow as there is a huge storm rolling in so it should be fine.
> This does show that we have all our eggs in one basket when it comes to drinking water. If this was true, you wouldn't have any water at your home right now. You do, so your statement is verifiable false.
The radio reported that the two workers were injured when a chain snapped and hit them. Work is expected to resume this afternoon, if not already.
Damn that sucks. Hope they’ll recover with no permanent damage.
They keep saying that people should reduce usage in the city but they only sent out one emergency alert last Thursday. How are the 80% of people who don’t check the news supposed to even know they should be conserving water still?
Agreed. Communication has been abysmal.
Communication has been terrible. I’ve restricted water like crazy - but day 2, I couldn’t find any information regarding further restrictions. We needed more emergency communications, so we ALL knew what was happening. The city also needed to be more transparent, with how long it would take to restore water. Putting off showering and laundry for a week, hadn’t been enough - I feel angry we weren’t told the truth. We also need more than 1 pipeline for drinking water. It’s unconscionable to put over a million people at risk, because infrastructure hasn’t been built to keep pace with the population increase. If another pipeline isn’t built, we are guaranteed to have more leaks. The city first put out a notice that the pipe had a 50 year lifespan, and it was 49 years old. THEN they told us that under ideal conditions, it can last 100 years. Calgary weather isn’t ideal conditions. It’s not fair to gamble with the drinking water, of a city (and suburbs), the size of Calgary. Build a second pipe, before we are without water again (maybe when it’s -30)! Also, have high water industries reduce their usage, so we have water for emergencies.
100% agree. I've spoken to many people who thought it's been dealt with a while ago. I've actively been searching for updates to find out, like another poster commented. Without doing that I wouldn't have had any information since the alert I think
Hilariously, I saw this on tik tok before I saw it anywhere else. By the way, surprising no one, tik tok comments are cancer. 90% of the comments were blaming the mayor for the injured workers like she was the one wielding the chain
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https://www.calgary.ca/ It is literally all over the city of Calgary's website., with an update today at 2pm.
Thank you to all of you who are actively working to fix the pipe!
I really hope it wasn’t trench collapse related. Shit is scary. As a J man plumber/gasfitter that’s gotta be the easiest and worst way to go. Happened to a kid just recently and was fatal. Not gunna name names but a quick google search will get you there. Sad stuff.
Apparently a chain snapped and it hit two workers, injuring them.
I hope they’ll be okay, injuries could mean anything from stitches or a cast to a major injury.
This comment section is frightening
But not surprising, sadly.
Send an emergency alert, and no more warnings - fine the outdoor water usage.
Poor management on the citys part with respect to water allocation. If everyone cuts water the first few days and no one does laundry dishes etc... There will be a point where people need to start using more water again to wash stuff. Rather than telling everyone to cut back everything, they should have a plan for rotating days to do certain actions for various sectors of the city.... Like se wash clothes Monday, sw Tuesday, nw Wednesday ne Thursday... Or something to thst effect. I know its easier said then done but consumption smoothing is key and any guidance to steer it that way would be tremendous. Also... This is why massive rapid population growth is an issue. What would things be like if we had another 200000 people and this happened.
From the beginning communication and planning on this issue has been horrendous. I hope there's a post-mortem where they can analyze where they went wrong and put in better communication practices for future events.
Wait a few months and crack another line to find out. Almost like the population increase is more than we can handle...
More details in the video update here: https://www.youtube.com/live/l3aYjeBBy38?si=uDBfLuU3y2NChnR6
What are the extra details for those of us who are unable to watch the video at the moment
“Once water has been restored, we can turn our attention to what happened and why” is he referring to the main break or to the injuries?
Bofa
Who’s steve jobs
My opinion of Gondek would have flipped if she showed up with unkempt hair and flies circling around her head, it would have been the ultimate move
I just knew there would be comments from armchair civil engineers complaining about how this will slow the repair. I wasn't disappointed.
Can't wait till Rick Bell writes a column wondering if Gondek personally attacked and injured 2 workers.
Somehow someone will find a way to blame Trudeau. He is omnipresent doing nefarious deeds across Alberta specifically according to the conspiracy folks.
Don Braid will follow it up with: This was Gondek's "Nenshi Calgary Flood" moment. Her political comeback is underway.
Cory and Trevor
Smokes, let’s go
I've met cats and dogs smarter than Cory and Trevor. In fact, most cats and dogs are smarter than Cory and Trevor
Problem: if you aren’t a news reading kinda person, you might not know that we’re in a water restriction situation… put signs everywhere. Ask businesses to print a sign off. Send a notice on the garbage day app. Spam the hell out of people. So many people have no idea about the restrictions!!!
I hope the workers both recover fully and have no lingering effects. You would think with such a high profile repair safety would be taken way more seriously and they would work their hardest to avoid any injuries or safety issues that would cause more delay. How did this even happen?
Tale as old as time in construction. Lots of pressure on the workers to get the work done. Management ignores workers taking risks to get the work done, workers get injured and management blames the workers for not working safely.
Why just assume that this is the case? You have no idea. I manage workers. Under OH&S, if I ignore workers taking risks, and serious injury, or worse occurs, and the investigation finds I did so, I can face personal fines in the hundreds of thousands, and even criminal conviction. They don't fuck about. Anyone in a management position with the City is well aware of this. Sometimes, things just happen despite robust safety measures. The City has industry leading safety protocols, but humans are human, and every job is dynamic, especially unusual ones like this.
What the hell happened?
Never good to hear about workers being injured on the job. Hope they’re okay and will recover quickly. That being said, this entire episode has made the city look really bad, and they didn’t have a good image to begin with.
> That being said, this entire episode has made the city look really bad, and they didn’t have a good image to begin with. Other than a stumble on the communication at the beginning how is it making the city look bad?
The stumble on communication has been for a hell of a lot longer than just at the beginning. They issued ONE alert. This should be an everyday thing at 8AM to people's phones informing them of the situation, progress, and reminding them to continue to ration water along with recommendations for doing so. But they're not doing that. Also the idea that all of this should primarily fall on people at home instead of businesses is absurd. The fact that I'm up to 3 loads of laundry and eating off of fucking paper plates like a vagabond meanwhile businesses go on like business as usual irks me to no end. And I will be doing my laundry over the coming days because who the hell knows what's going to happen with this. Are we going to run out of water because nitwits keep watering their grass? Is the repair going to take well into next week? Like there gets to be a point where my altruism and belief in working together for the common collective breaks and when that happens I will look out for myself and my family first. Clearly nobody else will. As far as the other stuff making this city look bad our crumbling infrastructure, lack of preparedness for emergencies, and the fact that we have 2 water treatment plants for a population that continues to climb and we really need a third one are all valid criticisms. But that last one won't happen. Instead we'll build another arena to watch the Flames lose every year.
As discussed further up the thread, I think the communication is an ongoing fumble tbh. Unless I specifically look into it, the only communication I would have received is the emergency alert that happened a few days ago. A lot of people don't seem particularly aware of the situation either
Emergency preparedness. I’m sorry but the city should have emergency procedures specifically for anticipated incidents and emergencies such as wildfire, flood, infrastructure failures etc. that includes having the resources on hand that are necessary to quickly mitigate and fix this issue that could and should have been anticipated. There is no conceivable excuse otherwise. As soon as the water main broke the emergency procedures should have kicked in and been communicated to the citizens. Metrics, specific responsibilities and directions for citizens to follow and how those steps will mitigate further disaster, what steps/phases are required for the city to repair the problem, which phase they are on, the expected outcome of those phases etc etc. I could easily go on and list the dozens of basic emergency preparedness actions, but you get the point.
Many thanks to them for putting in the time to solve the issue. Hope they return safely to their families.
Lucky none lost any limbs that fucked
Okay rather than scolding us like children for using showers and doing laundry… why don’t they start closing non essential businesses with heavy water usage? If this is really an emergency then what is more important, a restaurant’s ability to run an industrial dishwasher or an individual’s hygiene at home?
Asking people to cut back on water usage is not being scolded like children.
But yelling and screaming about it on the internet is child-like. (Not you, the original commenter) Is there a word to describe this mentality? Projection?
When people say things you disagree with do you always feel like they are yelling and screaming? Because that would be the real projection here.
"Okay rather than scolding us like children for using showers and doing laundry… " This isnt a thing, people were asked just to take shorter showers and launder full loads.
Me taking it to the extreme and not using any water except toilet flushes, hand washing, drinking water, and occasional dishes. I really don't wanna run out of water
You'd have a different opinion if you were a small business owner and that was your livelihood. It sucks for everyone, but if it puts food on your table you're going to do your best to adhere to the restrictions while carrying on.
And really, it's the employees who would suffer by not getting a paycheck
The city has options to provide temporary relief funding to businesses. They have explored it in many other circumstances. I think they recently discussed this or did this related to the road closures in Marda Loop impacting business? Either way, the conversation should continue and I think it would be applicable here.
wait, you're saying that the city should start paying businesses from an emergency fund so that you can take as a long of a shower as you want?
...They should start paying businesses because we're dealing with a water emergency.
Erm... perhaps "the city should start paying businesses from an emergency fund so that ~~you can take as a long of a shower as you want?"~~ those business don't burn to the ground when the fire trucks roll up to their fire and the hydrants run dry?
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businesses have insurance for exactly this. Business Interruption Insurance. if they don't, that sucks for them.
Because if we all just use a little less water then we don't have to shut down people's source of income...
> a restaurant’s ability to run an industrial dishwasher or an individual’s hygiene at home? How much water does an average restaurant use? And they never said don't shower or clean yourself. Stop spreading falsehoods.
>Okay rather than scolding us like children for using showers and doing laundry Absolutely did not happen at any point. >why don’t they start closing non essential businesses with heavy water usage? If this is really an emergency then what is more important, a restaurant’s ability to run an industrial dishwasher or an individual’s hygiene at home? The simple answer is that closing businesses means more people not getting paid. Seeing how people are already struggling with the rising cost of living, cutting people's livelihood should be a worse case scenario action. Businesses should be, and were asked to reduce water usage where possible.
Closing down businesses during a recession is in no one’s best interest. Asking these businesses to limit water just like the people in the city is a reasonable request imo. All non essential businesses have been shut down to the best of my knowledge (pools, laundromats, etc)
I'd say I've probably reduced water consumption at my house by 50% or more and we're still managing to maintain decent hygiene. Daily long showers aren't necessary to maintain hygiene. We've been getting by just fine with 2 min navy showers and cabin rules on the toilets. It's clear that many people aren't bothering to do even the bare minimum to help. Businesses have been through enough the last few years, let's not start advocating to shut them all down unless if becomes absolutely necessary.
>a restaurant’s ability to run an industrial dishwasher or an individual’s hygiene at home? Considering restaurant workers need a source of income, the answer is easy, restaurants. Says alot about you if you want to sacrifice these people's livelihoods just so you can take a 25% longer shower.
Yeah let's put tens of thousands of people out of work so that you can water your lawn.... There are zero restrictions for doing laundry, taking showers, or personal hygiene. Stop making up a fake situation.
It turns out residential use is twice the consumption of commercial use.
No kidding, how many more houses are there than businesses in Calgary? But what is *essential*? Restaurants and car washes? Or being able to shower at home?
Car washes recycle their water, golf courses allegedly use non potable but I do agree with you. Same thing in Lethbridge with McCain's, Cavendish etc during prior periods of restrictions.
No one is saying don’t shower. They are saying make your shower shorter.
They should be saying don't shower. They should be saying don't do your laundry. The situation is dire and the city is basically saying "you should really maybe please think about reducing your residential water usage a bit, if it doesn't inconvenience you too much. Don't worry we've reached out to business too and they're mumble mumble these are not the droids you're looking for facts and data I have no idea what you mean". It's ok I imagine people will understand when (if, hopefully not) the city is burning and we can't put it out.
The mayor was wrong when she said that, it's more like 52%. You may want to verify your information. [https://www.calgary.ca/content/dam/www/uep/water/documents/water-documents/water-efficiency-plan.pdf](https://www.calgary.ca/content/dam/www/uep/water/documents/water-documents/water-efficiency-plan.pdf) >Residential customers comprise the vast majority (92 per cent) of water service connections in Calgary and account for 52 per cent of demand. Industrial, commercial and institutional users represent only seven per cent of the total customer base but use 34 per cent of the water. The remainder is distributed to wholesale customers, consumed in delivering City services or lost through system leakage. Edit: Newer reports say it's closer to 58% residential. Oooooh facts and numbers.
The fact you think you’re being scolded, means you aren’t following the guidelines like an adult. Therefore, you deserve to be treated like a child.
Sure, and how about all of the restaurant/etc employees who won't get paid with such a shutdown get their regular income taken from your personal bank account?
We should never return to closing 'non-essential' businesses, because that means only the big corps get to stay open. If we need to conserve water that badly, close them all down for a day or two.
Commercial use is 35% of the cities usage. We are the main users so it makes senses to ask us to reduce our usage while asking commercially do the same. No business can close down for two weeks in peak season (especially now after the whole covid thing) they’d be out of business.
Have been asked to reduce not restrict. Pretty selfish take honestly.
Because haulting thousands of people's source of income carries way more consequences than not watering your lawn and taking a shorter showers.. jfc you people just love finding a reason to be outraged.
Can someone with more knowledge than me please explain why the city hasn't declared a local state of emergency yet?
What do you think invoking a LSoE will add in this situation? A local state of emergency grants additional powers to the local government. Powers such as: * put into operation an emergency plan or program; * authorize or require a local authority to put into effect an emergency plan or program for the municipality; * acquire or utilize any real or personal property considered necessary to prevent, combat, or alleviate the effects of an emergency or disaster; * authorize or require any qualified person to render aid of a type the person is qualified to provide; * control or prohibit travel to or from any area of Alberta; * provide for the restoration of essential facilities and the distribution of essential supplies and provide, maintain, and coordinate emergency medical, welfare, and other essential services in any part of Alberta; * order the evacuation of persons and the removal of livestock and personal property from any area of Alberta that is or may be affected by a disaster and make arrangements for the adequate care and protection of those persons or livestock and of the personal property; * authorize the entry into any building or on any land, without warrant, by any person in the course of implementing an emergency plan or program; * cause the demolition or removal of any trees, structures, or crops if the demolition or removal is necessary or appropriate in order to reach the scene of a disaster, or to attempt to forestall its occurrence or to combat its progress; * procure or fix prices for food, clothing, fuel, equipment, medical supplies, or other essential supplies and the use of any property, services, resources, or equipment within any part of Alberta for the duration of the state of emergency; * authorize the conscription of persons needed to meet an emergency. None of the above are required to currently deal with the water situation. The City is dealing with the emergency without invoking a LSoE.
So many armchair experts voicing stupid and/or wrong opinions here. As a local civil engineer, I’m enjoying the laugh, as are my colleagues.
Is it possible for the city to apply an extra charge for households and businesses which use over a certain about of litres? My reasoning is, while a certain percentage of people are going without showers and laundry, others are not altering their consumption at all. If altruism isn’t an incentive, perhaps knowing that there will be additional charges over and above their regular bill might steer more people in the right direction. It’s probably too complicated to put into place, I imagine.
Tricky when volume is measured at the building level. No way to really allocate water per person. My monthly water use is probably 4 or 5 m3, which is way lower than another household with more people.
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This isn’t them taking the morning off to grab breakfast, two people went to hospital. It makes perfect sense that they shut down for a preliminary investigation, even if it’s just to make sure that the condition that caused two people to be seriously hurt doesn’t exist anymore And there has never been a ban on washing your clothes or doing dishes.
The lack of empathy in some people is down right scary.
> Eventually people need to start washing their clothes and cleaning dishes. People were never told to stop washing their clothes and cleaning their dishes. They were told to wait until you have a full load of clothes. Or a full dish washer. And try to do it off hours. >Seems excessive that they will delay this another 24 hours if this is as extreme a situation as has been communicated. Two people got hurt so bad on the job site they were sent to hospital! You want to risk other people's live because you want to get back to watering your lawn?
How could you possibly complain about a minor delay and inconvenience when people have been hurt! Everyone should always go home at the end of their day safely and in good health no matter what the job is.
We were never told not to do those things. Only to be as efficient as reasonably possible. Wait an extra day or two and do as full a load as you can. Recycle water intelligently and don't be wasteful. No one is saying be stinky and don't dishes at all.
I'll never forgive Mayor Gondek for personally injuring those two workers /s
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I think I means propane fireplaces