Western Standard - Calgary Water Main Crisis.

00:00:00.000 Good morning everyone. I've been starting the day with these Indigenous greetings to

00:00:07.760 honour the Treaty 7 peoples who stewarded our water at the confluence of the Bow and Elbow

00:00:13.040 Rivers for generations before many of us settled here. I'd like to thank Municipal Affairs Minister

00:00:17.920 Rick McIver and City of Calgary General Manager Michael Thompson for joining me today. Today is

00:00:23.680 a very big day for more than one-third of Alberta's population that live here in Calgary and the

00:00:29.200 surrounding communities of Airdrie, Chestermere, Strathmore, and Sutena Nation. All of you rely

00:00:35.840 on the City of Calgary to provide safe drinking water to your homes, water to wash your dishes,

00:00:41.680 to do your laundry, and so much more. And today, I am pleased to tell you that we are one giant

00:00:47.920 step closer to restoring full water usage to all of you. Just over two weeks ago, I signed a state

00:00:54.960 of local emergency and delivered heavy news that we were in a water crisis i shared that our city

00:01:01.600 operations team had provided a three to five week timeline to get water flowing as it normally would

00:01:08.160 to the taps in our homes and our businesses that was difficult news to deliver and i know it was

00:01:13.760 difficult news to hear i vowed to take any action needed to aggressively speed up the timeline and

00:01:20.000 i'm relieved to say that today we can deliver some much needed good news i'm incredibly pleased to

00:01:27.120 share that indoor water use can now return to normal and we look forward to slowly restoring

00:01:34.320 outdoor water use as we continue to monitor the system stabilization process a quick overview of

00:01:41.200 what changed since yesterday to allow us to return to regular indoor water usage today

00:01:47.580 First, we had three crews working all day yesterday to flush water through hydrants to reduce turbidity in the system.

00:01:55.900 That's to reduce the cloudiness that some of you saw in your water.

00:01:59.960 Turbidity levels are coming down, and they're trending in the right direction.

00:02:03.640 Next, with production safely increasing at the Bearspaw Water Treatment Plant,

00:02:08.820 we're able to perform some critical maintenance that's needed at the Glenmore Water Treatment Plant.

00:02:14.440 And lastly, the Bear's Paw feeder main has now been brought up to 50% capacity, and we continue to stabilize the system by listening for irregularities and measuring pressure changes.

00:02:26.140 Calgary, I am in absolute awe of the work that all of you did for the last 26 days.

00:02:32.380 For almost an entire month, you have gone above and beyond, a little excited today, to keep our water usage low.

00:02:42.920 and you ensured that we had safe drinking water during this crisis and that our firefighters

00:02:48.140 doctors and nurses were never without the water they needed to do their jobs and I cannot thank

00:02:53.960 you enough for every action that you have taken. I want to thank the residents of Bowness for

00:02:59.240 carrying the extra burden at the beginning of this crisis. I won't forget my visits to your

00:03:04.160 community during those first few days. You had a major impact on me. I felt the full impact of

00:03:10.780 your situation as I spoke with you and your community spirit fired me up to push for better

00:03:16.100 and faster solutions to this crisis. I must also thank our crews and our teams at the Emergency

00:03:21.400 Operations Centre and the Water Tactical Operations Centre. They worked tirelessly day and night

00:03:27.560 throughout this challenging period to get the water feeder main fixed, water flow fully restored,

00:03:33.120 and information out to the public. Chief Sue Henry and General Manager Michael Thompson,

00:03:38.260 your personal dedication has been unwavering and on behalf of the entire Calgary region we say thank

00:03:44.840 you. When just over a week into this crisis we discovered the bad news that we needed to repair

00:03:51.080 more of the pipe than just the break, several people stepped up to help expedite repairs like

00:03:56.700 Minister McIver who's been a sounding board throughout all of this. Like Calgary's oil and

00:04:01.440 gas community, so many of you stepped up to offer guidance when I called and texted you on June the

00:04:06.660 6th and again on the evening of June the 14th when we found out about those five trouble spots.

00:04:12.820 I'm grateful that we had your depth of experience, your commitment to the city and ideas for

00:04:18.500 expediting repairs at a time when we needed it the most. To all the contractors, the trades

00:04:23.860 peoples and organizations that made themselves available immediately for dewatering, excavation

00:04:30.660 and repair work, we could not have done this without all of you. I also have to thank San

00:04:35.620 Diego for the pipes that were sent our way and all of the notable people and businesses in the

00:04:41.220 Calgary region who lent your voices to water saving efforts by offering words of encouragement

00:04:46.820 on social media. Everyone from Brett the Hitman Hart to Connor at Local Laundry to the whole

00:04:52.900 Calgary Stampeders organization and so many more. Sometimes it takes a crisis to remind us how much

00:05:00.260 we can accomplish if communities elected officials and governments work together i was reminded of the

00:05:07.540 value of the strength of these partnerships over the last 26 days in particular the province was

00:05:13.380 there for us calgary alberta health services provided water testing at several critical points

00:05:19.220 including during the initial break when their ongoing testing enabled us to lift the boil

00:05:25.300 water advisory for the community of Bowness on the 10th of June providing those residents with

00:05:30.660 peace of mind that their water was safe once again and most recently as we flushed the system

00:05:36.820 following the repair work Alberta environment and protected areas stepped up to provide

00:05:42.260 non-potable water for construction companies as well as for residents wanting to keep their plants

00:05:47.300 and trees alive they also provided guidelines for and monitoring of the flushed water to ensure

00:05:53.460 that chlorine was properly removed from the water before it went back into the river as well as

00:05:59.220 slope stabilization alberta occupational health and safety provided quick clearance for return to work

00:06:05.940 after being on site immediately following the incident that injured two men and i am relieved

00:06:11.540 to report that both men are now recovering the province's emergency management committee of

00:06:17.380 cabinet was critical support and council on the evening of June the 14th as we made the decision

00:06:23.700 that a state of local emergency was essential to resolving this crisis as quickly and efficiently

00:06:29.940 and safely as possible and of course the gentleman next to me today and his team municipal affairs

00:06:36.980 minister Rick McIver has stood with me for the last 26 days minister was on standby throughout

00:06:42.660 this emergency available for calls at all hours to discuss progress and to brainstorm ideas

00:06:49.700 including having provincial wildfire crews and equipment staged for fire emergency suppression

00:06:55.620 when we had a grass fire situation in early days. Mr McIver thank you for having our back

00:07:01.220 and I will now turn it over to you. Thank you Mayor Gondek it's uh it's a good day today it's

00:07:11.300 nice to be here and uh thank you all for joining us uh it's with uh great uh gratitude and frankly

00:07:18.740 a little bit of relief that i'm with you here today to recognize the expeditious work that's

00:07:23.700 been undertaken to fix the bonus water main and to thank calgarians for their efforts in conserving

00:07:28.500 water for these last four weeks i also acknowledge we're not completely out of the out of the wood

00:07:35.060 jet in times of crisis the strengths of partnership become evident the recent water infrastructure

00:07:41.620 incident and bonus served as a stark reminder of this from the onset the mayor reached out to

00:07:46.500 premier smith and myself and kept us updated regularly alberta's emergency management agency

00:07:54.180 which has members embedded in calgary emergency management agency also ensured constant direct

00:08:00.260 communication between each each of our experts at the province and in calgary finally our emergency

00:08:07.300 management cabinet connected regularly with the mayor and her team these levels of communication

00:08:12.820 were pivotal in addressing the immediate needs of community communication support and advice

00:08:19.300 i'd like to acknowledge the different provincial ministries support throughout these past four

00:08:23.300 weeks elberta health services played a crucial role conducting initial and ongoing water testing to

00:08:28.180 manage and eventually lift the boil water advisory by the ambitious target of june 10th their

00:08:36.260 dedication ensured public health remained paramount through the recovery process alberta

00:08:41.860 environment and parks as the mayor alluded to stepped up to provide additional water licenses

00:08:49.060 for non-potable water uses during repairs accompanied by strict guidelines and monitoring

00:08:54.980 to safeguard environmental integrity their efforts in the chlorinization and slope stabilization

00:09:01.780 during water flushing underscore their commitment and our government's commitment to sustainable

00:09:07.540 practices the alberto occupational health and safety team swiftly reviewed the work site

00:09:12.660 following the unfortunate injuries ensuring safety protocols were reinforced before granting

00:09:17.700 clearance to resume work this exemplifies their dedication to protect workers well-being

00:09:23.060 in challenging environments while recognizing the need for water for one and a half million

00:09:29.300 citizens in calgary recognizing the proactive measures taken by albert alberta emergency

00:09:35.460 management agency and alberta wildfire who staged supplementary fire suppression resources

00:09:40.580 in calgary's forest forested areas illustrates our commitment to preemptive action and community

00:09:46.420 safety i must commend my colleagues in emergency management cabinet for their rapid response

00:09:51.540 and willing to basically drop everything and pay attention to calgary's needs during this time

00:09:57.620 their ability to convene at short notice ensured seamless information flow in both directions and

00:10:02.980 provided invaluable support to the city and declaring a state of local emergency when that

00:10:07.940 was really required i also recognize mayor gondack for her leadership throughout this ordeal her

00:10:14.340 commitment to transparent communication with the public advocating for realistic timelines and

00:10:20.180 declaring a state of emergency when it was necessary have been instrumental in getting us

00:10:26.420 to this day i'm grateful for her initiative in mobilizing private sector experts who contributed

00:10:32.020 crews ideas and support to get the job done mayor gondack thank you thank you as well to all the

00:10:39.460 private sector experts that reached out to my office into the city that were able to connect

00:10:44.820 and help times like these truly remind us what community is all about i appreciate the mayor's

00:10:51.540 recent motion for an independent incident review and secure clear budget numbers i'm sure preserving

00:10:57.060 the integrity of calgary's water system is top of mind for all calgarians as it is for council

00:11:03.140 in closing on behalf of premier smith and the government of alberta i extend heartfelt thanks

00:11:09.220 to calgarians and our regional neighbors for their solidarity support and patience during this

00:11:14.980 challenging time your resilience and understanding have been indispensable together and only together

00:11:24.020 we have demonstrated that in the face of adversity collaboration and determination

00:11:29.220 can overcome any obstacle and as we charge ahead into stampede yahoo we let us continue to build

00:11:37.140 on this spirit of partnership and mutual support for the betterment of our communities thank you

00:11:42.580 and now i'd like to general manager michael invite michael thompson to say some words

00:11:52.100 good morning everyone and thank you minister mckiver and mayor as shared by the mayor

00:11:57.140 we are now able to ease indoor water saving measures we know this is an exciting milestone

00:12:02.980 after almost a month of Calgarians practicing water conservation measures in their homes

00:12:08.300 and businesses.

00:12:10.200 Just as we are easing into lifting restrictions, we need Calgarians to ease into their water

00:12:16.620 use within their homes.

00:12:18.860 The Bears Paw South feeder main is now back in service for the first time since June 5th.

00:12:24.600 The feeder main is operating at 50% capacity as we continue to stabilize the system and

00:12:30.660 need to reduce the demand we have placed on the Glenmore water treatment plant over the last month

00:12:36.180 we need calgarian support to avoid providing too much strain on the system this means being

00:12:42.660 thoughtful about spreading out your water use needs like not doing all your waiting laundry

00:12:47.540 in one day but instead doing one load a day for the coming days we continue to modern monitor the

00:12:54.340 feeder main listening for breaks and measuring pressure changes the system is responding well

00:12:59.780 so far and we have not heard any anomalies i want to stress that outdoor stage 4 water

00:13:06.340 restrictions remain in place more information on easing outdoor water restrictions will be shared

00:13:12.740 in the coming days as we determine how the system responds to the increased demand

00:13:18.260 operational teams will provide more information on what easing indoor water use means for

00:13:23.300 calgarians and businesses at today's media availability at the emergency operations center

00:13:29.300 i'd like to take this opportunity to recognize the city teams and the contract crews who made

00:13:34.580 this repair possible and people who continue to work around the clock to stabilize the system

00:13:40.820 this truly has been all hands on deck with teams working 24 7 over the last month to maintain our

00:13:47.460 safe drinking water system while we repair this critical feeder main we've had the opportunity

00:13:53.300 work with various industry professionals and water service partners from across north america

00:13:59.140 and the connections we have established and enhanced have been extremely beneficial throughout

00:14:04.660 response and repair calgary emergency management agency have provided their leadership and guidance

00:14:10.180 they facilitated response support through agency partnerships like those we heard about with the

00:14:15.460 province alberta today and numerous others through sema's expertise bringing together city of calgary

00:14:21.780 departments external agencies non-profit organizations non-governmental organizations

00:14:27.620 and community partners we know we have access to expertise required for a safe and effective

00:14:33.140 approach i've had the opportunity to work alongside these emergency management professionals

00:14:38.660 at the emergency operations center for the past several weeks and their leadership has been

00:14:43.220 integral in the response for calgarians we understand that easing indoor water saving

00:14:49.700 measures is a milestone and we're all looking forward to it your commitment to conserving water

00:14:54.820 throughout this response has been admirable and we still depend on you as we stabilize the system

00:15:00.020 and ease into further restrictions thank you for your patience and continuing to step up as we

00:15:06.580 navigate these restrictions your resilience and community spirit are admirable and we

00:15:11.620 truly are all stronger together i'll now turn it back over to the mayor

00:15:15.140 thank you minister and thank you gm thompson michael i've greatly appreciated the ability

00:15:23.780 to be able to connect with you throughout this situation no matter what time of day

00:15:27.460 and your professionalism in guiding us through repair and recovery was just wonderful calgary

00:15:33.940 we've been through a lot together since june the 5th i want you to know that i am committed to

00:15:39.060 learning from this crisis and i would like to share some of those learnings with you and talk

00:15:44.180 about how i plan to action some of these takeaways to start let's talk about communication we

00:15:50.100 struggled with our communication over the first three days as the city learned the enormity of

00:15:55.060 this situation and focused more on the work than on the communication i realized the impact of this

00:16:00.580 error as i've said many times when i visited bonus on the 8th of june that afternoon i called cao

00:16:07.220 david duckworth and said we must do better the morning of the 9th of june i apologized for this

00:16:13.380 oversight and i committed to twice daily briefings until water flow was restored from the bears paw

00:16:19.380 water treatment plant the next focus became collaboration because we had already engaged

00:16:25.700 with external experts in construction and trades in addressing the main break that occurred on

00:16:31.300 june 5th we knew that this situation required partnerships so by the time we learned the bad

00:16:36.980 news and shared it with you on the 14th of june that robotic technology had detected five additional

00:16:42.900 hot spots that needed to be repaired, I knew further collaboration was critical in making

00:16:48.100 sure we could get to repairs quickly and safely to restore water flow. Working late into that

00:16:54.260 evening, I spoke with the province and also reached out to private sector experts who were then

00:16:59.620 invited to roundtable discussions with myself, General Manager Thompson, and others. This

00:17:06.420 collaborative effort was critical in moving the timeline up safely and efficiently.

00:17:12.420 throughout this situation i also knew that like me calgarians wanted and deserved answers to what

00:17:18.180 went wrong i called for a comprehensive third-party review of the incident which i expect to cover

00:17:24.420 exactly what happened to the pipe the steps taken to fix the problem and a review of the city's

00:17:30.180 response to this water crisis this review will also look at our issues around communication

00:17:36.340 that led to calgarians and our neighboring communities not getting the information they

00:17:41.140 needed quickly when they needed it and i promise we will get to the bottom of all these issues

00:17:46.980 we need to make sure that this doesn't happen again while we have already taken steps to

00:17:51.940 improve monitoring and ensure that we have the supplies on hand to fix the system should we

00:17:57.140 experience any problems we need to do more two weeks ago at my 8 30 a.m update i promised a

00:18:04.820 wide-ranging examination of the city's underground infrastructure i committed to working with city

00:18:10.100 Council to ensure that there's enough of a budget to run a thorough inspection of all underground

00:18:16.260 water pipes and address maintenance and upgrading needs. Going forward, I will be asking important

00:18:22.100 questions to find out what we need in the budget so we can ensure we have the technology and

00:18:26.980 inspection methods required to fully understand at all times the state of our water infrastructure.

00:18:33.780 I've also committed to take our learnings and advocate for all municipalities across Canada.

00:18:38.980 We need a national push to ensure that funding is available to fix and replace

00:18:44.420 vital infrastructure before we see more catastrophic failures. As I said before,

00:18:50.660 if this can happen in Calgary, it can happen anywhere. I'll be able to turn my attention to

00:18:55.780 this shortly after we are able to come out of this crisis and lift the state of local emergency

00:19:01.540 later this week we'll be able to do so if all continues to go well until then please ease

00:19:08.340 yourself into regular water use in your homes and remember that outdoor water restrictions still

00:19:13.860 apply as does the fire ban we will get word to you when those are being lifted thank you all

00:19:20.100 for watching today and thank you to our media partners for sharing the details of this important

00:19:25.460 story with everyone in the calgary region day in and day out for the last 26 days and we'll take

00:19:31.300 your questions in just one moment to close i'll ask again that we gently return to regular indoor

00:19:37.620 water use a long shower and clean laundry are top of the list for so many of you and i would just

00:19:43.860 say that you ease back into those things and an important reminder the outdoor water restrictions

00:19:49.380 and fire ban are still in effect and you will receive regular updates through the team at the

00:19:54.660 calgary emergency management agency about when those restrictions will ease back to regular

00:20:01.300 Please be patient so we can get the system working to full capacity without any additional

00:20:06.180 issues.

00:20:07.180 Finally, going forward, I'm going to leave future updates in the very capable hands of

00:20:12.480 Chief Sue Henry, who will keep you informed through the Emergency Operations Centre.

00:20:16.920 I've appreciated being able to provide you with information every morning, and this will

00:20:21.740 be my last morning update with you.

00:20:24.660 Also important, today's afternoon update at the Emergency Operations Centre has been

00:20:29.700 moved up.

00:20:30.600 will take place at 12.15 p.m. today instead of the regular timing of 2 p.m. They will provide

00:20:36.600 more details about how the water system is being returned to full capacity. I want to thank you all

00:20:42.280 again for being good people, for banding together and cutting your water use and for understanding

00:20:48.360 that we are much stronger when we look out for each other. With that I will turn things over to

00:20:53.720 Adam Toy to manage questions from the media. All right, folks, one question, one follow-up

00:20:59.000 to start for any of our speakers here. Hannah, it's a city.

00:21:03.980 Why is Calvary still in a state of emergency when things are going well and we are using the

00:21:10.700 indoor water station? So the state of local emergency when it was declared was specifically

00:21:16.580 for two reasons. Firstly, we needed to access private property, portions of it, to be able

00:21:22.140 do the repair work that was needed on five of those hot spots and secondly if we needed to

00:21:26.940 procure anything outside of regular standards we were able to do so because we're still in

00:21:32.940 the monitoring stage and we are still making sure that everything is good to go that still state of

00:21:38.460 local emergency remains in place it will be expiring on thursday and we will have more

00:21:44.540 information from chief sue henry about whether it needs to be renewed or whether it can be lifted

00:21:49.900 entirely uh i don't think we have committed to that uh now it's been 14 years since i've been

00:22:03.980 at the city but my recollection is that the city has a very strong rate uh rate base uh for the

00:22:12.540 with utilities including a i think is a pretty robust capital replacement program now this is

00:22:18.700 this is going to be clearly a big hit on the capital replacement reserve whatever the reserves

00:22:23.340 are um but uh there's no commitment at this point to do that um and yeah that's where it stands today

00:22:34.220 so mayor you're asking calgarians to slowly wrap up and if calgarians turn on the taps and overnight

00:22:40.140 we go back up to 100 of our normal water usage how would the system be able to handle that and

00:22:45.260 And how confident are you that you wouldn't see this as a failure?

00:22:48.940 I have a lot of faith that Calgarians have understood over the last 26 days what we needed to do to keep our water system running and getting water to all of our homes.

00:22:57.300 And I continue to have that faith that Calgarians will understand we need to ease back into regular use.

00:23:03.260 So while we probably will see an increase in water usage, I'm very hopeful that people understand that staggering their laundry is still something that would be very beneficial.

00:23:12.800 And if we need to come back and provide reminders to folks to conserve water, I know that Chief

00:23:18.540 Sue Henry and her team will be doing that at the regular updates.

00:23:22.440 Do you hope that moving forward, even after everything prepared, that Calgarians kind

00:23:27.740 of keep this in mind for months and years to come when it comes to water research?

00:23:31.240 Because it really has been something that a lot of people haven't thought well in the

00:23:34.100 past to this extent.

00:23:35.820 I think the biggest thing is that Calgarians and members of our region rely heavily on

00:23:41.840 us to be able to provide safe clean drinking water to their homes for all types of uses and I think

00:23:47.440 restoring that service was just such a focus for all of us that we were willing to do our part

00:23:53.760 in reducing water usage. I can tell you in all my conversations with people out in community

00:23:58.560 people have reflected that they never stopped to think how much water was being wasted as they

00:24:02.880 were running the shower to get it to warm up or just leaving the tap running to get it to cool

00:24:07.440 down. So I think people have learned a lot about the value and importance of water,

00:24:12.160 and I'll be interested to see what kind of practices people carry on with.

00:24:16.000 Scott, thank you.

00:24:18.000 Well, Minister McKaylor, just to clarify on the money issue, is that your comments,

00:24:24.960 sort of the wider scope of things as opposed to the emergency? I know the city has reached out

00:24:31.440 to other orders of government for assistance with the situation. Can you clarify?

00:24:36.000 listen i've always said uh i've never offended when municipalities ask for more money for

00:24:41.440 infrastructure we can't always say yes but it's an into in the mayor or any other municipal

00:24:47.040 official asks their their province or their federal government for more money they're just

00:24:50.720 doing their job right i remember a period of time when i was on city council and i was part of a

00:24:56.400 course always asking the province and the federal government for more money and that was doing the

00:25:00.320 job right as i understand it knowing that the answer can always be yes but let me say this uh

00:25:07.200 i i guess i again i haven't been here for 14 years but my recollection is the city had a pretty

00:25:11.680 pretty robust uh rate structure for utilities like water and wastewater and including a

00:25:17.680 i think a pretty respectable capital replacement program but uh on the on the wider issue um

00:25:23.600 nobody has enough money including municipalities and and when the when calgary or any other

00:25:29.760 municipality asks us for more money i know they're just doing their job right out of concern for their

00:25:33.760 citizens and we will continue to cooperate collaborate on these things as we go forward

00:25:39.760 some days they'll like their answer and other days they won't

00:25:46.960 the work that's been going through this whole situation between city and the province i know

00:25:53.600 I would say it's been cooperative collaborative the mayor correctly characterized where we got each

00:26:13.840 other on speed dial the last few weeks you know it will and just because it's been important

00:26:18.960 there's been several ministries within our government that have stepped up and and uh

00:26:23.360 and made resources helpful to the city which is part of our job uh the the city part of the city's

00:26:28.080 job is to let us know uh what they need to see what we can help with i think that worked i would

00:26:34.640 say fairly smoothly and as seamlessly as we could i mean when you're this this is a surprise to

00:26:40.960 everybody when this happened um pipe that was supposed to last 100 years lasted 50 that's

00:26:47.440 what i would characterize as a surprise um but we i think everybody jumped in as best we could

00:26:54.240 and as fast as we could to be cooperative and helpful and and consequently we've gotten to this

00:26:59.680 So the number one thing will be to collect all of the information we need about how much

00:27:24.040 expenditure took place on addressing this crisis.

00:27:27.140 I know that Chief Sue Henry and her team

00:27:30.100 are tracking all of those expenses.

00:27:32.260 Once we have that number,

00:27:33.800 we will be looking at what resources

00:27:35.880 we have available right now,

00:27:37.700 whether there are contingencies in place

00:27:39.900 or reserves that we can access to help pay for that.

00:27:42.780 But again, this is something that we will have

00:27:44.460 more information on in the coming days.

00:27:50.040 Mayor, the minister had mentioned that he believes Calgary

00:27:53.640 has robust capital placement plan

00:27:55.260 So we do set our rates in a way that addresses the idea of maintenance and upgrades and

00:28:07.240 regular service. So I know the water teams work very diligently to make sure appropriate

00:28:12.160 rates are set. Again, without knowing what the total tally is of expenditures on this

00:28:17.680 issue, I can't speculate on whether we have enough to cover it through contingencies or

00:28:22.880 existing budget. Once again, the teams at Water Services, Emergency Operations Center,

00:28:28.320 and General Manager Thompson will have more information on what we have and where we may

00:28:33.360 need some assistance. You had mentioned that this was a surprise of the 100-year pipe that lasted

00:28:42.320 50 years there are tons of this type across the province across north america how will you as

00:28:49.840 minister of municipal affairs address potential for similar problems in most likely smaller and

00:28:58.880 well uh it will be a probably an issue because of the size of calgary particularly the largest city

00:29:07.040 in alberta um i don't i would suggest that there's probably not a lot of municipalities

00:29:13.840 with the same size of pipe as the one that failed here but all pipes will fail um that's that's the

00:29:21.760 fact when you put a piece of pipe in the ground the only thing you know for sure is that someday

00:29:26.320 it will fail that's that's a fact of life so uh yeah no i think it's a so it's a wake-up call

00:29:32.880 for us to or a reminder if you will to encourage municipalities to the ones that can to have

00:29:40.640 capital replacement reserves in place recognizing that smaller municipalities in many cases don't

00:29:49.120 have the capacity to do that and in fact we have water and wastewater programs through our

00:29:54.720 transportation ministry to assist the smaller municipalities with that knowing that by sheer

00:30:00.720 number of people versus the cost of the infrastructure that they may never be able to fully

00:30:07.760 pay for that forever we we have programs to help the smaller smaller municipalities to do that

00:30:14.800 jordan excuse me yeah for the mayor just looking for clarity on the restrictions obviously indoor

00:30:21.760 a lot of restrictions are being eased outdoors still in place for now where's the speed for

00:30:25.440 businesses that were asked to dial back to the city are asked to dial back when it comes to

00:30:31.440 maybe a car wash or those type of businesses what are they supposed to do at this

00:30:37.600 so let me start with the overview and then i'll ask general manager thompson to weigh in

00:30:41.920 what we can tell you right now is that the reductions that you have been doing at home

00:30:46.640 are not needed anymore so you can return to using water inside your home the way that you were used

00:30:52.080 do we are asking that people ease into this though so we can continue to make sure that we've got

00:30:57.200 enough water supply for everyone when it comes to businesses i'll turn it over to general manager

00:31:01.920 thompson thank you our team at the calgary emergency management agency is reaching out

00:31:09.520 right now to all those business partners that we had connected with to ask them to

00:31:14.000 ease some of their indoor water use and so things like car washes will be reopening today

00:31:19.040 indoor pools will be reopening today and so we're actively reaching out to all of those partners

00:31:23.840 right now and we'll have more details at today's media availability at the emergency operations

00:31:29.520 center well i knew actually this is the minister and it's uh mostly unbelievable if i may ask a

00:31:35.760 question for my quality uh if it's in there since the province and 2023 with a 4.2 billion dollar

00:31:41.600 yeah we have talked to Edmonton about their funding requests and to be

00:32:09.040 perfectly clear we don't pay property tax no government pays tax to another government we do

00:32:15.360 have a program called grants in place of taxes which currently we pay at 50 of what property

00:32:21.280 tax would be but to be perfectly clear we don't pay property tax never have and never will i don't

00:32:28.160 believe so you can use your water regularly indoors but I am asking

00:32:47.880 Calgarians to consider using it a little bit in an eased manner so if you have

00:32:53.200 four loads of laundry you need to get done I would say rather than doing it

00:32:57.380 all today if you could space it out over the week. So we have lifted any reductions that we have

00:33:03.420 asked for indoors, but I'm appealing to people's good sense to ease into what they normally would

00:33:09.480 be doing. I have a question for Jim Thompson. We're at 50% capacity in the Barrett's Bottle line.

00:33:18.520 Can you kind of walk through what it looks like to bring the rest of the 50 up and sort of,

00:33:24.020 is it just more of the same or is there anything different that you're doing with this back half

00:33:29.780 yeah right now we're just listening to the pipe so we have monitors in place and we're listening

00:33:34.340 to see if we hear any indications of anomalies within the pipe we're measuring pressures to see

00:33:39.860 how the pipes reacting as we put more water through this is very similar as we met with

00:33:44.500 some of our round table colleagues in the oil and gas industry when they have a pipe that has a break

00:33:49.700 and they bring it back into service they slowly ease it back in and they don't run it at the

00:33:54.020 maximum capacity right away and so that's a similar methodology we had we were happy to

00:33:58.900 know that that aligned with what private sector partners would be doing and so we're just slowly

00:34:03.620 easing it back in and that's a measure of turning on different pumps at the bears paw water treatment

00:34:08.740 plant as we turn on different pumps we move more water through that pipe and we're just measuring

00:34:12.900 how it's reacting and we'll continue to do that in the coming weeks i have a question for the minister

00:34:18.340 I'm not sure if you can answer it is probably environment protected areas but

00:34:22.720 with regard to the water licenses with the temporary restrictions or the indoor

00:34:28.240 water saving measures being eased do you know if there's gonna be any change to

00:34:32.760 the temporary water licenses or did they have an end date that was prescribed you

00:34:36.880 know how that's gonna work no you know what that's that's Minister Schultz

00:34:45.620 uh deals with with that stuff and and and uh well i know that she's been very helpful or as helpful

00:34:51.220 as they could be and as quickly as they could be throughout this thing uh i've been kind of busy

00:34:56.180 enough with my own details to not knowing that her mind in her ministry's mind was in the game and

00:35:02.980 and working with the city and our other uh municipalities across the province was enough

00:35:08.340 for me but the finer details with all i don't mean to disappoint you but probably you would

00:35:13.140 want to go to the Minister Schultz and her ministry to get those answers.

00:35:33.620 Yeah so the Glenmore water treatment plant has been operating at a very high load for the last

00:35:38.180 month and so we need to start to slow that down and so we're going to reduce the the production

00:35:42.740 coming out of the Glenmore water treatment plant those pumps have all been going non-stop and we

00:35:47.540 haven't had the ability to go and do some of the regular maintenance that we've needed to do at

00:35:51.460 that plant so we'll reduce the production coming out of that plant so we can go in and do that

00:35:56.020 maintenance this week and it's just part of bringing the bear's paw water feeder main back

00:36:02.420 in the service and reducing the the production at Glenmore to a more regular rate okay but it

00:36:07.540 It remains in operation and I'm extremely grateful to the crews that have kept that

00:36:16.660 plant running the way it is. I was talking to someone who went by there the other day and they

00:36:21.220 said that the parking lot was full. There was a ton of activity and they've never seen so many

00:36:25.380 people at the Glenmore water treatment plant. That's because the crews have been working 24

00:36:30.260 7 to keep Calgary having safe clean drinking water. We need to slow that plant down and do

00:36:35.940 that regular maintenance now we'll have more information at the media availability at the

00:36:52.740 emergency operations center today but we are reaching out to all of the indoor pool

00:36:59.460 facilitators to let them know about this change and that they can start to use their facilities

00:37:04.500 going forward we understand different facilities have different ramp up times

00:37:08.400 and so the teams have been talking to them throat I am sure that the problem

00:37:28.140 that we'll hear from the city at some point in the future and when we do we

00:37:31.140 carefully consider their request but i i can make a promise today that i'm not uh sure that we'll

00:37:38.180 that that we can say yes to but uh we're certainly aware uh this is uh an unexpected expense i

00:37:47.060 well i don't know i think it's a fairly easy guess that it'll be a large one

00:37:51.060 and uh yeah we always listen to their requests carefully and when we get

00:37:55.140 a request based on whatever's happening now we'll listen to that carefully also

00:38:01.140 like it seems like you're i know i i know your job is to is to uh get me to to commit to something

00:38:07.780 that i can't commit to but i'm not going to do that um again it's uh we've uh worked in

00:38:15.380 collaboration and partnership with the city throughout this thing they've been wonderful

00:38:18.740 to work with we've tried to be helpful to them and uh one thing about it the city's

00:38:24.660 gonna ask us for more money if not for this for something else probably both like the city you're

00:38:34.100 gonna have to wait for that all right uh that's everything thank you so much folks uh just reminder

00:38:40.420 uh 12 15 at the eoc for more of a technical press briefing thank you so much

00:38:54.660 Thank you.

00:39:24.660 You

Western Standard - July 03, 2024

Calgary Water Main Crisis.

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