I honestly fail to see how this would help. A water shutdown doesn’t mean you won’t have your shower. It just means you’ll have your shower after. Same with laundry and dishes. Might save a toilet flush or two? A single hand wash?
The city needs to be doing more now that we know it will take so long. By that I mean, if all car washes aren’t closed, they’re insane. If they want people not to wash dishes, they need to give out disposable plates, silverware, etc. if they want us to reduce our drinking water, they need to give out bottled water or have water trucks.
“Don’t wash your hair” is not going to work for 5 weeks. That’s insane.
100% agree. The comment of “dads for Father’s Day we give you permission to not wash and shave” was wild. I’m not much into politics but I can see why people despise Gotham Godenk. They just aren’t coming up with solutions at all. The things you stated should be a must at this point. Spend some of that raised tax dollar money on buying compostable plates and bowls for people. Have a plan for the optics to be covered, ie people not seeing wasted water usage by business or the city. They were able to force every business to have all kinds of signs during Covid and at my gym not one single sign up in the changing rooms asking to have quick showers etc.
If it hasn't been brought up, apartment complexes are horrible for wasting water when service is done. I've drained entire 12 story buildings to fix a supply to a toilet on the ground floor. Old buildings don't have isolation at every floor, you drop it all. A full stop on maintenance drain downs should be in place
Fire Sprinkler recert and flush will still be happening and that's a huge sum of water each time.
100% agreed. 3 - 5 weeks isn't a real timeline. They haven't scanned the entire pipe yet. Whole thing will need to be replaced to keep it stable when they re-pressurize.
I bought another rain barrel cheap off marketplace because I didn't believe their BS press miscommumications. 2 should last a few weeks if we get the rain they say.
We are working on the pipe they are going to use to fix this at my job. i start sandblasting it tomorrow morning we putting in the ot to get’r done we already did the repair bands and sent them off but it appears that didn’t work out for the pipe itself
The city be dropping off the pipe bands and new pipe at like 6pm 7pm our boss literally off loaded a truck one night set it up for sand blast, blasted it, moved it into the shops and painted it than loaded it again on their truck that night thats supposed to be our whole crew but hes the boss 😎 and a tank.
No one in the briefing has mentioned Stampede yet - 4 million people attend Stampede per year
Edit to add:
From the Stampede website:
“YEAR-ROUND ECONOMIC IMPACT
Each year, Stampede Park hosts over 1,200 business, tourism, sporting, hospitality and community events and welcomes more than four million guests. These events create thousands of jobs and contribute more than $540M to the Alberta economy.”
https://corporate.calgarystampede.com/about-us#
They're probably praying like crazy that it's 3 weeks instead of 5.
Edit: Per CEMA Chief, Stampede are at the table. "Too early to project what will occur"
I think they'll eventually get to a point where there are things that we do "as a community". I saw in another thread that someone said you could ask 311 to provide a truckload of non-potable water for community gardens. Maybe, we'll see that become common-place for backyard gardens and people will help their neighbours get water from the community halls.
I'm just trying to be optimistic here haha
I'm sure someone will tell us that "Stampede isn't a significant draw of water" just like the sports events. Apparently getting a bunch of folks loaded drunk in a stadium doesn't cause more bathroom use?
There is too much money in the Stampede to just cancel it. They'll probably impose indoor water restrictions and truck in a ton of water before that would happen.
we are gonna run dry. calling it now. the people don't have the ability or tolerance to keep this up for 3-5 more weeks. time to shutdown large commercial water consumers such as bottling plants.
There will definitely be a spike in the next 24hrs. Anyone who has been putting off laundry, dishes and other water use will do a load now that they know we're in for the long haul.
I can save my part of the “spike” until Monday, but yeah. Now that it’s not “fixed by Tuesday,” everything I’ve been putting off until then has to happen.
I bought more clothes this week to avoid washing them!
I wish we had like a fuel gauge live feed to see how critical it actually is. id love to be able to actually see with my own eyes that we are consuming more water than we are replenishing. I think this would help people actually put this crisis in perspective.
It’d do the opposite, people would see the reservoirs throughout the city as full and get complacent. If we’re managing our usage they should remain full, but people would misunderstand that.
im fine to aggregate the data in to a simple easy to read fuel gauge that factors in the total water supply in the city and our daily or hourly deficit or surplus. kinda like a debt clock. https://www.debtclock.ca/provincial-debtclocks/alberta/alberta-s-debt/
hopefully we see things like water trucks at the stampede for non potable uses. as we get more and more critical we really should be using the potable (treated) water to the best of our abilities and not on things like keeping dust down on the dirt track during the stampede.
We are not going to run dry. Calling it now. The city will take drastic measures to make sure it doesn't happen. Actually running dry would be a major humanitarian crisis. Not gonna happen.
Thing is, a major humanitarian crisis is in the cards. When backs are against the wall, what can the city do other than just start to cut the taps entirely, or have households automatically be cut off after a certain daily water usage? At that point from the point of view of most people that’s as good as running dry.
We are gonna run dry by not cancelling Stampede and not telling any business to cease operations during the crisis.
If Gondek is afraid of them, she has no idea how Calgary will react the day we run out of water and the taps are dry.
I really want to hear what the plan is for businesses to cut back if this goes much longer. I do my part and will continue to do so. But I have to shower (quickly) once and a while; flush occasionally (not every time), do some dishes and some laundry (essentials only). I have to drink. I have to prepare meals.
What about restaurants? Car washes? Hotels? Manufacturers? Schools? I would give hospitals a pass but maybe they can do some.
If this is going to get worse I want to know how EVERYONE, EVERY COMPANY is going to help.
Probably. Which means we have chicken politicians. The inmates are very likely running the asylum. I demand our politicians do the right thing, even if costs them votes.
JFC... At least with the water it is a much shorter and well defined (potential) shutdown. and not worldwide
Unlike COVID, a complete deficiency of water has immediate and tangible evidence & effects. I think business owners would change their tune pretty quickly if the pipes went dry
My wife is a nurse in a NICU unit. They’ve had their water and ice machines turned off and even been told to stop using their normal feeding bottles and switching to disposable to save on cleaning. This has some serious impacts on some babies because they have limited nipple types for the disposable ones (my understanding at least). Realistically I think non essential services should be facing the brunt of this; not hospitals.
Also it sounds like a lot of their laundry is being trucked to other jurisdictions (red deer, Lethbridge, etc.) to be done.
I would definitely put hospitals on the "ask as a last resort". If they are doing laundry elsewhere, that's helpful and hopefully low impact in terms of operations. No way should NICU be impacted if at all possible.
My hospital unit has already shut down the water fountains that patients and staff use.. they’ve fully switched to bottled water only. The NPO patients done get ice chips anymore. The staff are kind of scolded when taking a water bottle but personally I didn’t want to make my 500ml of water I brought from home last me my entire 13 hours there when I’m on my feet the entire time lol. A lot of hospitals are doing their part
No way this is happening. Not without enforced restrictions on businesses. People can't stick to the plan for 1 week, and they want us to do it for 5? Fat chance.
Has the city indicated they’re not? I’m guessing that they aren’t just going to keep the same number of resources on this, they don’t want to drag it out. But if they need to wait for more pipe, they can’t just toss people at it to solve that issue
Especially since the article says they’re doing just that
According to CEMA, they’re looking into the possibility of completing the work simultaneously. Stop looking and do it. There’s so many indemnified contractors in Calgary that this should be a non-issue to complete in a timely manner.
Manpower isn’t the issue, pipe availability will be. You can toss all the people at it you want, but they just wind up standing around if they have no pipe. Pre-stressed, steel lined 78” pipe isn’t going to be just stacked up sitting around in large amounts
Actually i read this somewhere reliable that they have 2 or 3 (forgot the length) of precisely that feeder main pipe in storage ready to be installed just in case this happens. Not sure if its enough though.
It's ok we gotta do our part and then they'll give some spiel about how we need the tourists for the economy blah blah blah and they can use all the water they want.
This changes the game, and contrary to what I said earlier, likely will mean they need to start talking to businesses. This is extremely bad.
> "More than 700 of the city's top commercial water users have been contacted directly and they're doing everything they can to reduce their water use.
> Addressing car washes specifically, the mayor said outdoor car washes are "completely shut down" while indoor car washes remain open because they recycle the "vast majority" of the water that they use – about 85 per cent.
Thats promising at least.
Ik most people r following the restrictions, but others r being rude and disrespecting it. I was at my school track and field meet, and someone left all the sinks in the bathroom running😡 this is gonna be a brutal couple of weeks.
They should really be ordering businesses to let people work from home whenever possible. Tens of thousands of people commute to Calgary from the bedroom communities every day to work.
Those that live in the city wouldn't have to shower or do laundry as often either.
That alone would probably make all the difference they need.
Middle managers and CEOs would rather burn down their own property than give in to the work from home requests. Studies have shown productivity was higher during the pandemic and WFH. Companies would literally rather lose money than let people enjoy better work life balance.
I am going to have faith that city crews can get this fixed in three weeks, just in time for Stampede. Then we can sing songs and tell tales of the water feeder pipe break of 2024 while giving a loud "yahoo!"
But that's probably a fantasy.
If only they had as high standard as Oil& Gas required to send pigs through lines often to make sure things are not compromised.....
How often does the city need to do this with water lines, especially feeders?
>“This pipe is only at the halfway point in its lifecycle. From all accounts this should not have happened but it did.”
But everyone else has said it was nearing its 50 year time line since it was installed in 1975....
>He said more than 900 warnings have been issued, as well as two tickets for what he described as an "egregious or excessive" use of water.
Sorry, but by now everyone in this city knows what is going on, straight tickets and be done with it.
The pipe in question has known issues encountered so across North America. I work for another Canadian water utility. We guessed it would be 1975 AWWA C301 concrete pressure pipe as we had a break in 2013 on the same type of pipe.
Things the city/province/federal government should do but won't:
- identify the heaviest commerical users and simply pay them to remain closed until this is fixed
- encourage WFH/telecommuting where possible, especially for those businesses that have automatic-flushing toilets (I can't let the yellow mellow at home, but the toilets at work flush automatically when I stand up)
Feel free to add your own.
Yup. I don’t flush every time at home. Don’t have that choice at work due to the auto flush and would t do that at work due to being at work with others who aren’t family.
The benefits of WFH in terms of the environment are absolutely massive. I don’t think I can take any politician who claims to be pro environment seriously if they are not pro-WFH.
Province should suggest anyone coming to Calgary from out of town to visit friends/family that can bring those big clear water jugs filled up with fresh water. Anything helps.
So when this all kicked off, lot of talk about this pipe being 50ish years old and close to it’s lifespan. But officials, the last few days, have been making a point of mentioning it’s a 100 year pipe.
Anyone the wiser?
Either way…here we go.
I think you have two types of answers.
The administrator answer who says 100 years because that's what's on the books.
And the real answer from people who know the reality. 50 years is when they start having issues frequently. Technically the whole system will last another 50 years but with the odd patch now and then .
This pipe was built in the 1970s. Is not like they had a comparable pipe from the 1870s to compare to. It sounds like some long-dead people pulled a number out of their ass when they made the sale.
Would love to know this as well. 100 years for something built in 1975 for a city 1/4 its current size sounds like fantasy to me. But I don’t know shit about pipes.
It is.
Now why don't you ask why we constantly value low taxes and suburban sprawl over maintainable and sustainability.
This is only going to get worse as we have an $85 billion infrastructure deficit that constantly gets differed to the next generation of Calgarian taxpayers.
There are different technologies that could've been installed in this pipeline in order to predict this failure, yet they weren't put in place. Hence, we have to deal with the effects of the pipe burst in order to save a buck a few years ago.
We also have a “world class” compost facility if you need proof it’s less world class and more 3rd world check this out
https://preview.redd.it/b87f44jyim6d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7718e685c84a9bdfefd51ea804b2f8ad3f9de21a
Their HVAC is literally being held together with tape and ratchet straps.
TLDR:
* gonna take 3-5 weeks to fix
* bears paw treatment plant is fucked right now
* they’ll finally tell some categories of business to limit use
* rolling blackouts is a possible solution if we don’t limit use collectively
* the delay is to fix it right so this shit doesn’t happen again because they’ve uncovered multiple hot spots of shitty pipe
* coils around the pipe wore down then snapped like the fucking titan sub
* don’t flush as much, only do full loads/less laundry and dishes and FFS don’t use water outside for your plants/cars/grass
* it’s too early to project if stampede is canceled
This is absolute insane. another 3-5 weeks are you kidding? I read an article somewhere that last April 2024 they did the maintenance and everything was good shape. Now all of a sudden the pipes which is supposed to last upto 100 years are already giving up? I think there is more to actually what we know. This is very serious.
Guessing 100 years is the high estimate with good conditions and perfect maintenance. Certainly sound better to frame this as a freak accident rather than a failure in their procedures
Maintenance of this level of feeders should be at the highest level no compromise at any cost. This is an eye opener and the cheeky work. Also underestimating the possibility of failure and the wrong perspective of being pro active is very important
I don’t know anything about how this works and I’m not criticizing anyone but it seems insane that it’s going to take over a month to fix a critical water supply to a very large city.
You can eviscerate me now.
This will likely be lost in the quantity of replies here, but some guy replied with this story to Gondek's tweet this morning.
https://piperepair.co.uk/2021/06/13/the-pccp-repair-and-reinforcement-project-caused-by-mistakes-of-the-70s/
Take it for what it's worth, but if there is some accuracy here someone needs to answer for the city's lack of preparedness for the eventual failure of this pipe.
I have a 15 minute cycle on my washer that I used to do one full load today. I also starting using the quick wash cycle on the dishwasher. We've got this! I think this is doable but definitely not ideal!
I have to wonder if the city is considering bringing in a temporary emergency water treatment system. There are containerized plants for these sorts of situations, looking at one manufacturer that can max out at 5000 gallons/minute, which would be 27.2 million litres per day. I’m sure it would come with a hefty price tag, but I’d rather that than run out these next 3-5 weeks.
The site I was looking at: https://www.veoliawatertech.com/en/solutions/services/mobile-water-services
Unfortunately the problem doesn't seem to be treatment but rather distribution, so it's not just plopping one of these down where the normal treatment plant is. Bearspaw is still operating just fine, the water just can't go anywhere.
It's probably worth investigating if one of these could be set up in at least some spots, it would mean we'd need to install it in a place that can output to the system while also having sufficient intake, but maybe that's possible in Shouldice which is closed anyway?
We'd also need a few of them, but it's an interesting idea if we can tie these in at the right spots quicker than we can fix the pipe.
The hospital unit I’m doing my placement in has switched to bottled water for patients and staff until things improve. I can’t imagine how much money this costs lol. I’m curious if all the hospital units are doing the same
Mayor is calling for people to work from home. Yay!! I drive in to Calgs from Drumheller 3 days a week for work, so will be very happy to not contribute to your supply issue for the next 3-5 weeks.
How does this happen when they just did maintenance on the line in April? Missing one flaw is one thing but also missing five other critical flaws they are just now discovering?
It sounds like extreme negligence.
The parks trucks have their own (untreated) water sources according to the news, so they're not using the supply.
The sprinklers though, that's probably not great.
So Stampede is in 3 weeks, and they have asked Calgarians to conserve water. Do you think that thousands of visitors are going to skip showering and flushing?
Definitely concerning that the infrastructure is already “buckling” when we’re talking about more densification and ongoing population growth. Hopefully a wake up call for city hall / council and more importantly city planning to have a back up system in place for the future
This is gonna be an unpopular thought, but has the idea that the Stampede be delayed or cancelled be put out there is too early to project? I think right now would be a great time to make that decision. Even if this is resolved a couple weeks before gates open, will the system and city have enough time to make a sustainable recovery back to normal?
The event on it's own will decimate what little water is getting around through just caring for the animals, let alone the hundred thousand extra humans getting their drink on and taps running almost 24/7 at bars all over the city. And there is so much more water that needs to be used than just the two thoughts, here.
How well is the food party that is food trucks and such going to go? Hot days are already a challenge, how do you accommodate that kid of spike in water needs? Additional problems are already being found with the pipeline, so this doesn't bode well, either.
There so much piled into the single event, the idea they are saying it's too early, is crazy. I know it's a lot of money, but if this fucks up again while the stampede is going, none of that money will be worth it.
I feel giving it a year to make sure the fix is a definitive fix, and that the city as a whole has returned back to Calgary normal, would be the most sensible idea.
Here’s and idea… Why doesn’t the city install a temporary, micro scale water treatment plant downstream of the breaks in the water main. That way they can treat and pump water around the breaks in the feeder main within the bowness/shaganappi area. It sounds ridiculous to just let the city run out of water entirely without some more mitigations measures.
Furthermore, re-route the water in a temporary above ground feeder main while the work is being done on the section where hotspots have occurred. The section with hotspots could be shut down while the rest is re-routed.
They found 5 more sections needing replacement after sending a robot down about 4km or 300m (according to CTV and CBC respectively.) That's a far cry short of the 11km worth of pipe. I won't lie, I'm a little nervous about the remaining 7-10.7 remaining kilometers. But I suppose we can assume that they've only drained the section their working on, so maybe the rest of the pipe remains structurally sound?
The city’s messaging hasn’t been top-notch… I’d like to better understand if there are certain communities or parts of the city that are more at risk of running dry. It seems like the greatest risk is running the community reservoirs dry, so does that mean every community in the city has an equal likelihood? Or are the communities closer to the feeder break more at risk?
I feel like if the city was able to tell specific residents in specific areas that they were at higher risk there might be more compliance.
That doesn’t, obviously, minimize the fact that everyone should be doing their part across the city.
We are visiting Calgary rn. We are leaving Monday. That should solve it. ;)
Sorry for your troubles but we are from Las Vegas and our water is awful and we are always under threat of water restrictions.
Please share the link to The City of Calgary Emergency Management Centre’s latest news conference with all your friends and family. I was surprised how many people I texted had no idea about these latest developments.
https://www.youtube.com/live/UoNTbWr-XB0?si=G1XH-bztlU4qEc_B
Hank, you cant use your outside water
Peggy would report tbh
Kahn will just keep watering at night until he gets caught by Bobby.
This is the sort of emergency that lazy dudes who piss in the sink sometimes dream about. Their time to shine.
I go pee pee in the sink
Fuck me this is gonna be a brutal few weeks
I’m sure people will be totally understanding and come toget- I can’t even finish that sentence with a straight face.
We gonna run out 100% lmao. I'm betting we'll see shutdowns for water during certain hours in areas
With stampede coming, this is going to get interesting. Bingo card anyone?
Smelly backalley sex with strangers. Oh wait, that already happens regardless of water situation.
I honestly fail to see how this would help. A water shutdown doesn’t mean you won’t have your shower. It just means you’ll have your shower after. Same with laundry and dishes. Might save a toilet flush or two? A single hand wash? The city needs to be doing more now that we know it will take so long. By that I mean, if all car washes aren’t closed, they’re insane. If they want people not to wash dishes, they need to give out disposable plates, silverware, etc. if they want us to reduce our drinking water, they need to give out bottled water or have water trucks. “Don’t wash your hair” is not going to work for 5 weeks. That’s insane.
100% agree. The comment of “dads for Father’s Day we give you permission to not wash and shave” was wild. I’m not much into politics but I can see why people despise Gotham Godenk. They just aren’t coming up with solutions at all. The things you stated should be a must at this point. Spend some of that raised tax dollar money on buying compostable plates and bowls for people. Have a plan for the optics to be covered, ie people not seeing wasted water usage by business or the city. They were able to force every business to have all kinds of signs during Covid and at my gym not one single sign up in the changing rooms asking to have quick showers etc.
If it hasn't been brought up, apartment complexes are horrible for wasting water when service is done. I've drained entire 12 story buildings to fix a supply to a toilet on the ground floor. Old buildings don't have isolation at every floor, you drop it all. A full stop on maintenance drain downs should be in place Fire Sprinkler recert and flush will still be happening and that's a huge sum of water each time.
100% agreed. 3 - 5 weeks isn't a real timeline. They haven't scanned the entire pipe yet. Whole thing will need to be replaced to keep it stable when they re-pressurize.
Disheartening when big business gets a pass and we have to let our garden die.
I bought another rain barrel cheap off marketplace because I didn't believe their BS press miscommumications. 2 should last a few weeks if we get the rain they say.
Yea we have recycling bins out
Wait till we get the bill!
We are working on the pipe they are going to use to fix this at my job. i start sandblasting it tomorrow morning we putting in the ot to get’r done we already did the repair bands and sent them off but it appears that didn’t work out for the pipe itself
Thanks mate, I can’t imagine the stress the people are working on this are feeling.
The city be dropping off the pipe bands and new pipe at like 6pm 7pm our boss literally off loaded a truck one night set it up for sand blast, blasted it, moved it into the shops and painted it than loaded it again on their truck that night thats supposed to be our whole crew but hes the boss 😎 and a tank.
Get that OT and get it fucking done my man.
Sipping my coffee now homie than im on it bright and early
Get after it brother. Thank you for your contributions and get that OT
Get it done my man and enjoy the ot
Thanks to you and your crew! Please keep going and bank that well deserved OT!
Thanks for your hard work!
If this was sim city, all the Sims would have left
No one in the briefing has mentioned Stampede yet - 4 million people attend Stampede per year Edit to add: From the Stampede website: “YEAR-ROUND ECONOMIC IMPACT Each year, Stampede Park hosts over 1,200 business, tourism, sporting, hospitality and community events and welcomes more than four million guests. These events create thousands of jobs and contribute more than $540M to the Alberta economy.” https://corporate.calgarystampede.com/about-us#
They're probably praying like crazy that it's 3 weeks instead of 5. Edit: Per CEMA Chief, Stampede are at the table. "Too early to project what will occur"
And this isn’t 2013, we can’t all come together and dig our way out of this one like we did then.
I think they'll eventually get to a point where there are things that we do "as a community". I saw in another thread that someone said you could ask 311 to provide a truckload of non-potable water for community gardens. Maybe, we'll see that become common-place for backyard gardens and people will help their neighbours get water from the community halls. I'm just trying to be optimistic here haha
I know there’s the parallels to 2013, but something tells me this is going to be more like 2021.
I agree 😔 Society has changed a lot since then!
People are a lot more cruel and selfish now, tbh.
And worse at driving. And worse at crossing streets. All that selfishness and they are more miserable than ever.
That's so sad but probably true 😢
Come hell or no water …
COME HELL OR NO WATER stampede 2024 💦
https://preview.redd.it/pzfankopsm6d1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=91ec6f99aacb5558f29943e8b7f9143bcbcb1e9d * Found on facebook
Drink beer, not water!
A five week long city-wide bender sounds awesome. Count me in.
I'm doing my part!
New slogan for Stampede 2024 "COME HELL OR NO WATER!"
They are "working on contingency plans"
I'm sure someone will tell us that "Stampede isn't a significant draw of water" just like the sports events. Apparently getting a bunch of folks loaded drunk in a stadium doesn't cause more bathroom use? There is too much money in the Stampede to just cancel it. They'll probably impose indoor water restrictions and truck in a ton of water before that would happen.
Not to mention all of the livestock that needs access to water.
Probably hoping they can get it done in 3 to not impact it
>4 million people attend Stampede per year Big nope. About 1.2m.
Thats attendance at the Stampede grounds alone IIRC.
**SOLUTION**
we are gonna run dry. calling it now. the people don't have the ability or tolerance to keep this up for 3-5 more weeks. time to shutdown large commercial water consumers such as bottling plants.
There will definitely be a spike in the next 24hrs. Anyone who has been putting off laundry, dishes and other water use will do a load now that they know we're in for the long haul.
thats me. I have been holding off to do my part but I need to do dishes and im out of clothing haven't showered in 3 days.
Desperate for clean undies and a shower. Am doing the every three days shower because I'm home and not working. Ugh.
Sailor showers! Turn off the water when you are lathering and only have it on to rinse. Save a ton of water that way.
I can save my part of the “spike” until Monday, but yeah. Now that it’s not “fixed by Tuesday,” everything I’ve been putting off until then has to happen. I bought more clothes this week to avoid washing them!
Can confirm. Just threw in my first load of laundry since the break.
Especially since its the weekend.
There's no added "urgency" right now in their tone right now. But I wonder if what we do now impacts 2 weeks from now.
I wish we had like a fuel gauge live feed to see how critical it actually is. id love to be able to actually see with my own eyes that we are consuming more water than we are replenishing. I think this would help people actually put this crisis in perspective.
Thing is, people would watch that and think “oh, now I can use more water.”
It’d do the opposite, people would see the reservoirs throughout the city as full and get complacent. If we’re managing our usage they should remain full, but people would misunderstand that.
im fine to aggregate the data in to a simple easy to read fuel gauge that factors in the total water supply in the city and our daily or hourly deficit or surplus. kinda like a debt clock. https://www.debtclock.ca/provincial-debtclocks/alberta/alberta-s-debt/
Not to mention Stampede. The influx of visitors surely will make things worse if they're not fully ready.
hopefully we see things like water trucks at the stampede for non potable uses. as we get more and more critical we really should be using the potable (treated) water to the best of our abilities and not on things like keeping dust down on the dirt track during the stampede.
If there are for-profit water bottlers in the YYC area using YYC treated water to bottle they should absolutely be shutdown.
pepsi bottling plant - 4815 78 Ave SE coke bottling plant - 3851 23 St NE, the coke plant operates 6 days a week 24 hours per day.
We are not going to run dry. Calling it now. The city will take drastic measures to make sure it doesn't happen. Actually running dry would be a major humanitarian crisis. Not gonna happen.
Thing is, a major humanitarian crisis is in the cards. When backs are against the wall, what can the city do other than just start to cut the taps entirely, or have households automatically be cut off after a certain daily water usage? At that point from the point of view of most people that’s as good as running dry.
We are gonna run dry by not cancelling Stampede and not telling any business to cease operations during the crisis. If Gondek is afraid of them, she has no idea how Calgary will react the day we run out of water and the taps are dry.
[удалено]
"mostly" use recycled water they say
I really want to hear what the plan is for businesses to cut back if this goes much longer. I do my part and will continue to do so. But I have to shower (quickly) once and a while; flush occasionally (not every time), do some dishes and some laundry (essentials only). I have to drink. I have to prepare meals. What about restaurants? Car washes? Hotels? Manufacturers? Schools? I would give hospitals a pass but maybe they can do some. If this is going to get worse I want to know how EVERYONE, EVERY COMPANY is going to help.
Politicians will do anything to avoid another COVID business shutdown repeat.
Probably. Which means we have chicken politicians. The inmates are very likely running the asylum. I demand our politicians do the right thing, even if costs them votes. JFC... At least with the water it is a much shorter and well defined (potential) shutdown. and not worldwide
Unlike COVID, a complete deficiency of water has immediate and tangible evidence & effects. I think business owners would change their tune pretty quickly if the pipes went dry
My wife is a nurse in a NICU unit. They’ve had their water and ice machines turned off and even been told to stop using their normal feeding bottles and switching to disposable to save on cleaning. This has some serious impacts on some babies because they have limited nipple types for the disposable ones (my understanding at least). Realistically I think non essential services should be facing the brunt of this; not hospitals. Also it sounds like a lot of their laundry is being trucked to other jurisdictions (red deer, Lethbridge, etc.) to be done.
Yeah, NICU babies certainly shouldn’t be the ones suffering due to this.
Our society is completely fucked. NICU babies and NPO patients struggle to stay hydrated while car washes are open.
I would definitely put hospitals on the "ask as a last resort". If they are doing laundry elsewhere, that's helpful and hopefully low impact in terms of operations. No way should NICU be impacted if at all possible.
My hospital unit has already shut down the water fountains that patients and staff use.. they’ve fully switched to bottled water only. The NPO patients done get ice chips anymore. The staff are kind of scolded when taking a water bottle but personally I didn’t want to make my 500ml of water I brought from home last me my entire 13 hours there when I’m on my feet the entire time lol. A lot of hospitals are doing their part
I get that hospitals are different. 500ml for 12+ hrs isn't reasonable. Thank you for all you do (and all staff, Drs Nurses, support staff)
Shout out to Famoso pizza in Mckenzie Towne for using disposable cups and plates! Except the cups are plastic. It's confusing.
Live your dystopian future of tomorrow, today!
No way this is happening. Not without enforced restrictions on businesses. People can't stick to the plan for 1 week, and they want us to do it for 5? Fat chance.
Gonna drill a well. Brb.
99% chance there's a bonus going around to get this under control before stampede.
Good.
Why aren’t more resources being called in for simultaneous work to be completed on the five other damaged sections?
# We need strong virile men to lay the pipe.
Someone get Bruce Willis and his crew on the phone.
Has the city indicated they’re not? I’m guessing that they aren’t just going to keep the same number of resources on this, they don’t want to drag it out. But if they need to wait for more pipe, they can’t just toss people at it to solve that issue Especially since the article says they’re doing just that
According to CEMA, they’re looking into the possibility of completing the work simultaneously. Stop looking and do it. There’s so many indemnified contractors in Calgary that this should be a non-issue to complete in a timely manner.
Manpower isn’t the issue, pipe availability will be. You can toss all the people at it you want, but they just wind up standing around if they have no pipe. Pre-stressed, steel lined 78” pipe isn’t going to be just stacked up sitting around in large amounts
Actually i read this somewhere reliable that they have 2 or 3 (forgot the length) of precisely that feeder main pipe in storage ready to be installed just in case this happens. Not sure if its enough though.
Well they just used two to fix this first break so no not nearly enough
There's five spots there's worried about now.
So.... Stampede is coming up...
2013: month before Stampede and there’s too much water 2024: month before Stampede and there’s not enough water
Sure hope it isn't too wet during Stampede this year...monkey paw curls
Come hell or high water. 2013 was high water. 2024 is hell.
Papa Stampede had too much water. Mama Stampeded had too little water. But Baby Stampede was juuuuuuust right.
It's ok we gotta do our part and then they'll give some spiel about how we need the tourists for the economy blah blah blah and they can use all the water they want.
It's the tourists that will fuck us... along with those of us who are making no effort to help out.
This changes the game, and contrary to what I said earlier, likely will mean they need to start talking to businesses. This is extremely bad. > "More than 700 of the city's top commercial water users have been contacted directly and they're doing everything they can to reduce their water use. > Addressing car washes specifically, the mayor said outdoor car washes are "completely shut down" while indoor car washes remain open because they recycle the "vast majority" of the water that they use – about 85 per cent. Thats promising at least.
Hahaha we’re fucked
Ik most people r following the restrictions, but others r being rude and disrespecting it. I was at my school track and field meet, and someone left all the sinks in the bathroom running😡 this is gonna be a brutal couple of weeks.
That’s not being simply inconsiderate, that’s someone fucking on us on purpose
Some people just want to watch the world burn
"two more weeks has entered the chat". Hey guys, it's been a few years.
They should really be ordering businesses to let people work from home whenever possible. Tens of thousands of people commute to Calgary from the bedroom communities every day to work. Those that live in the city wouldn't have to shower or do laundry as often either. That alone would probably make all the difference they need.
Middle managers and CEOs would rather burn down their own property than give in to the work from home requests. Studies have shown productivity was higher during the pandemic and WFH. Companies would literally rather lose money than let people enjoy better work life balance.
Yeah that's fair, the only reason I am contemplating if I need a load of laundry right now is because of my work shirts.
Coming from someone who lives in bowness who lost there water again on Tuesday and still don’t have it. It sucks. Be smart people
I am going to have faith that city crews can get this fixed in three weeks, just in time for Stampede. Then we can sing songs and tell tales of the water feeder pipe break of 2024 while giving a loud "yahoo!" But that's probably a fantasy.
If only they had as high standard as Oil& Gas required to send pigs through lines often to make sure things are not compromised..... How often does the city need to do this with water lines, especially feeders? >“This pipe is only at the halfway point in its lifecycle. From all accounts this should not have happened but it did.” But everyone else has said it was nearing its 50 year time line since it was installed in 1975.... >He said more than 900 warnings have been issued, as well as two tickets for what he described as an "egregious or excessive" use of water. Sorry, but by now everyone in this city knows what is going on, straight tickets and be done with it.
This city talks like underground line inspection and testing is some kind of voodoo rocket science.
The pipe in question has known issues encountered so across North America. I work for another Canadian water utility. We guessed it would be 1975 AWWA C301 concrete pressure pipe as we had a break in 2013 on the same type of pipe.
They can't the line diameter is too big to send an inspection tool.
Things the city/province/federal government should do but won't: - identify the heaviest commerical users and simply pay them to remain closed until this is fixed - encourage WFH/telecommuting where possible, especially for those businesses that have automatic-flushing toilets (I can't let the yellow mellow at home, but the toilets at work flush automatically when I stand up) Feel free to add your own.
Yup. I don’t flush every time at home. Don’t have that choice at work due to the auto flush and would t do that at work due to being at work with others who aren’t family.
It could be the final minutes of the apocalypse and the c-level would still demand office days
It’s not about the productivity, it’s about bathing themselves in the suffering.
Yep had this exact conversation earlier. They won't do that but that's exactly what it would take to shut businesses down for a while.
The benefits of WFH in terms of the environment are absolutely massive. I don’t think I can take any politician who claims to be pro environment seriously if they are not pro-WFH.
Province should suggest anyone coming to Calgary from out of town to visit friends/family that can bring those big clear water jugs filled up with fresh water. Anything helps.
So when this all kicked off, lot of talk about this pipe being 50ish years old and close to it’s lifespan. But officials, the last few days, have been making a point of mentioning it’s a 100 year pipe. Anyone the wiser? Either way…here we go.
I think you have two types of answers. The administrator answer who says 100 years because that's what's on the books. And the real answer from people who know the reality. 50 years is when they start having issues frequently. Technically the whole system will last another 50 years but with the odd patch now and then .
Ya, I think you’re bang on here.
This pipe was built in the 1970s. Is not like they had a comparable pipe from the 1870s to compare to. It sounds like some long-dead people pulled a number out of their ass when they made the sale.
Would love to know this as well. 100 years for something built in 1975 for a city 1/4 its current size sounds like fantasy to me. But I don’t know shit about pipes.
[удалено]
> Calgary’s water infrastructure is industry leading Doubt
It is. Now why don't you ask why we constantly value low taxes and suburban sprawl over maintainable and sustainability. This is only going to get worse as we have an $85 billion infrastructure deficit that constantly gets differed to the next generation of Calgarian taxpayers.
There are different technologies that could've been installed in this pipeline in order to predict this failure, yet they weren't put in place. Hence, we have to deal with the effects of the pipe burst in order to save a buck a few years ago.
More or a comment on the state of industry than the state of Calgary
We also have a “world class” compost facility if you need proof it’s less world class and more 3rd world check this out https://preview.redd.it/b87f44jyim6d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7718e685c84a9bdfefd51ea804b2f8ad3f9de21a Their HVAC is literally being held together with tape and ratchet straps.
Stampede 2013: Come Hell or High Water Stampede 2024: Come Hell or Low Water
Here's the YouTube Live video of the news conference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoNTbWr-XB0
TLDR: * gonna take 3-5 weeks to fix * bears paw treatment plant is fucked right now * they’ll finally tell some categories of business to limit use * rolling blackouts is a possible solution if we don’t limit use collectively * the delay is to fix it right so this shit doesn’t happen again because they’ve uncovered multiple hot spots of shitty pipe * coils around the pipe wore down then snapped like the fucking titan sub * don’t flush as much, only do full loads/less laundry and dishes and FFS don’t use water outside for your plants/cars/grass * it’s too early to project if stampede is canceled
What if we grow food that we eat? We have to let the crops die? Surely it doesn't belong in the same category as watering lawn or washing car
That’s a really good question they didn’t address. They said they’re working on FAQs. Rain barrel?
Why is Bearspaw fuct? The plant has an oversupply. Just just can't push it out fast enough through the available pipes.
I'm ready for all the Calgary strong stickers
This is absolute insane. another 3-5 weeks are you kidding? I read an article somewhere that last April 2024 they did the maintenance and everything was good shape. Now all of a sudden the pipes which is supposed to last upto 100 years are already giving up? I think there is more to actually what we know. This is very serious.
Guessing 100 years is the high estimate with good conditions and perfect maintenance. Certainly sound better to frame this as a freak accident rather than a failure in their procedures
Maintenance of this level of feeders should be at the highest level no compromise at any cost. This is an eye opener and the cheeky work. Also underestimating the possibility of failure and the wrong perspective of being pro active is very important
I don’t know anything about how this works and I’m not criticizing anyone but it seems insane that it’s going to take over a month to fix a critical water supply to a very large city. You can eviscerate me now.
Enmax should be sending each user a daily water usage email along with a target.
They don’t have digital water meters.
Glad they're being proactive and just fixing it all now when it's down anyway
I hope the work is round the clock 24 hrs all day. If this is critical, they should exhaust everything to fix it
This will likely be lost in the quantity of replies here, but some guy replied with this story to Gondek's tweet this morning. https://piperepair.co.uk/2021/06/13/the-pccp-repair-and-reinforcement-project-caused-by-mistakes-of-the-70s/ Take it for what it's worth, but if there is some accuracy here someone needs to answer for the city's lack of preparedness for the eventual failure of this pipe.
honestly put cancelling stampede on the table then people might get their heads out of their asses
You overestimate the people of this city
Nice. Good excuse to divert those absurd arena funds for something that this city is clearly desperately needing.
It’s like this Mayor has never played Sim City with disasters enabled. Rookie.
Going forward the city should allow residential grey water systems like they have in Australia.
I have a 15 minute cycle on my washer that I used to do one full load today. I also starting using the quick wash cycle on the dishwasher. We've got this! I think this is doable but definitely not ideal!
Check your manual - with my dishwasher the eco cycle uses less energy but more water.
Bye bye grass and plants.
I have to wonder if the city is considering bringing in a temporary emergency water treatment system. There are containerized plants for these sorts of situations, looking at one manufacturer that can max out at 5000 gallons/minute, which would be 27.2 million litres per day. I’m sure it would come with a hefty price tag, but I’d rather that than run out these next 3-5 weeks. The site I was looking at: https://www.veoliawatertech.com/en/solutions/services/mobile-water-services
Unfortunately the problem doesn't seem to be treatment but rather distribution, so it's not just plopping one of these down where the normal treatment plant is. Bearspaw is still operating just fine, the water just can't go anywhere. It's probably worth investigating if one of these could be set up in at least some spots, it would mean we'd need to install it in a place that can output to the system while also having sufficient intake, but maybe that's possible in Shouldice which is closed anyway? We'd also need a few of them, but it's an interesting idea if we can tie these in at the right spots quicker than we can fix the pipe.
The hospital unit I’m doing my placement in has switched to bottled water for patients and staff until things improve. I can’t imagine how much money this costs lol. I’m curious if all the hospital units are doing the same
Mayor is calling for people to work from home. Yay!! I drive in to Calgs from Drumheller 3 days a week for work, so will be very happy to not contribute to your supply issue for the next 3-5 weeks.
Right through the Stampede. Yee Haw, indeed!
The Calgary stampede will not let this happen! $50 says they slap a water treatment plant together in a hot second. Haha!
The UCP wants so badly to be involved in municipal affairs, maybe they could pitch in? Unlikely, I know.
5-7 days; they just didn’t say when they started counting.
The phrase used was "could be" 5-7 days. Obviously now that they've looked into it further, it's going to be quite a bit longer.
Good luck with this during stampede. Stock up on bottled water now folks
How does this happen when they just did maintenance on the line in April? Missing one flaw is one thing but also missing five other critical flaws they are just now discovering? It sounds like extreme negligence.
Suddenly that thread that got locked with the "Come Hell Or No Water" photo seems more plausible..........
Shut the car wash down wtf
Renting our shower out of our Canmore home! Bathe in Mountain fresh water for only $45/20 min! Dm me for more details! /s
The sprinklers were on at my apartment building and they had water trucks out watering the dog park lol
The parks trucks have their own (untreated) water sources according to the news, so they're not using the supply. The sprinklers though, that's probably not great.
An added 1 million visitors in Calgary isn't going to totally fuck us at all.
Makes you wonder if it wasn’t manufactured right if there’s that much of it failing and it’s supposed to be good for another 50 years.
So Stampede is in 3 weeks, and they have asked Calgarians to conserve water. Do you think that thousands of visitors are going to skip showering and flushing?
Definitely concerning that the infrastructure is already “buckling” when we’re talking about more densification and ongoing population growth. Hopefully a wake up call for city hall / council and more importantly city planning to have a back up system in place for the future
This is gonna be an unpopular thought, but has the idea that the Stampede be delayed or cancelled be put out there is too early to project? I think right now would be a great time to make that decision. Even if this is resolved a couple weeks before gates open, will the system and city have enough time to make a sustainable recovery back to normal? The event on it's own will decimate what little water is getting around through just caring for the animals, let alone the hundred thousand extra humans getting their drink on and taps running almost 24/7 at bars all over the city. And there is so much more water that needs to be used than just the two thoughts, here. How well is the food party that is food trucks and such going to go? Hot days are already a challenge, how do you accommodate that kid of spike in water needs? Additional problems are already being found with the pipeline, so this doesn't bode well, either. There so much piled into the single event, the idea they are saying it's too early, is crazy. I know it's a lot of money, but if this fucks up again while the stampede is going, none of that money will be worth it. I feel giving it a year to make sure the fix is a definitive fix, and that the city as a whole has returned back to Calgary normal, would be the most sensible idea.
It would definitely send a very clear message that the situation is serious
have they ever spoken about how the pipe got damaged or if it was deteriorated slowly
The lesson here is to never scan anything. I mean, duh!
Great...I just got my pool in the mail
The grass in Calgary is going to look like a war zone. Hopefully no sparks of this will be the city on fire!
Here’s and idea… Why doesn’t the city install a temporary, micro scale water treatment plant downstream of the breaks in the water main. That way they can treat and pump water around the breaks in the feeder main within the bowness/shaganappi area. It sounds ridiculous to just let the city run out of water entirely without some more mitigations measures. Furthermore, re-route the water in a temporary above ground feeder main while the work is being done on the section where hotspots have occurred. The section with hotspots could be shut down while the rest is re-routed.
They found 5 more sections needing replacement after sending a robot down about 4km or 300m (according to CTV and CBC respectively.) That's a far cry short of the 11km worth of pipe. I won't lie, I'm a little nervous about the remaining 7-10.7 remaining kilometers. But I suppose we can assume that they've only drained the section their working on, so maybe the rest of the pipe remains structurally sound?
The city’s messaging hasn’t been top-notch… I’d like to better understand if there are certain communities or parts of the city that are more at risk of running dry. It seems like the greatest risk is running the community reservoirs dry, so does that mean every community in the city has an equal likelihood? Or are the communities closer to the feeder break more at risk? I feel like if the city was able to tell specific residents in specific areas that they were at higher risk there might be more compliance. That doesn’t, obviously, minimize the fact that everyone should be doing their part across the city.
We are visiting Calgary rn. We are leaving Monday. That should solve it. ;) Sorry for your troubles but we are from Las Vegas and our water is awful and we are always under threat of water restrictions.
I’m not going without laundry and showers so drunken cowboy cosplayers can flush the Urinals 300 times a night. Cancel it.
Please share the link to The City of Calgary Emergency Management Centre’s latest news conference with all your friends and family. I was surprised how many people I texted had no idea about these latest developments. https://www.youtube.com/live/UoNTbWr-XB0?si=G1XH-bztlU4qEc_B