City of Calgary officials say they have identified the location of what they are calling a second “catastrophic” water main break in the northwest in less than two years, but they do not have a timeline as to when it might be fixed.
Catastrophic is the most severe categorization of incidents, according to the city’s risk assessment.
Firefighters and police responded Tuesday evening to significant flooding beneath the CPKC rail bridge near 69th Street N.W.
Thirteen people had to be rescued from eight vehicles that got caught in the torrent of water.
RAW | Vehicles get caught in water main break in Calgary:
Major water main break in northwest Calgary
A water main break in Calgary’s Bowness neighbourhood Tuesday night caused flooding and prompted a boil water advisory.
Josh Podulsky was one of those rescued. He was driving along 16th Avenue when he said the road “exploded.”
He described seeing a massive water spout, and within seconds water levels began rapidly rising around him.
“It was pretty freaky,” he said.
He was stranded for about an hour inside his vehicle before being lifted out by firefighters. Podulsky said he decided to stay put in his car after watching two people exit their vehicle and nearly get swept away.
“[My] car’s done, I think. It’s totalled, because the water was going over the windshield,” Podulsky said.
Thirteen people were rescued Tuesday night along 16th Avenue N.W. after a ‘catastrophic’ water main break. (Submitted by Cody Elliot)
The break on the Bearspaw south feeder main — the same source of the break in 2024 — happened around 8 p.m. Tuesday along 16th Avenue, east of its interchange with Sarcee Trail.
This break involved a section of pipe installed in 1975, and not the replacement pipe received from San Diego to repair the last break, the city said in an update Wednesday.
It happened due to a “rapid drop in pressure,” said Nancy Mackay, the city’s director of water services.
WATCH | Drivers talk about being caught in rush of water after water main break:
Water main break floods N.W. Calgary, leads to water restrictions and advisory
A water main break in Calgary’s Bowness neighbourhood Tuesday evening led to significant flooding, requiring firefighters to rescue 13 people from vehicles stuck in the gushing water. Some of those caught up in the torrent spoke to CBC’s Terri Trembath.
Water has now been shut off in the affected area.
Early Wednesday morning, the city issued boil water advisories for parts of Parkdale, Montgomery, Point McKay and West Hillhurst. Water wagons will be deployed to those communities.
Water remains safe to drink in the remainder of the city, said Susan Henry, chief of the Calgary Emergency Management Agency.
Stage 4 water restrictions are in place, which prohibits outdoor water use for things like flooding rinks or snow-making.
The City of Calgary released a revised map on Wednesday afternoon of the area affected by the water main break in Bowness. (City of Calgary)
Calgarians are being asked to reduce their water usage by limiting showers to three minutes or less, flushing toilets only when necessary, and waiting to run dishwashers and washing machines until they are full.
Bowness resident Josh MacDonald spoke to CBC News from outside a Real Canadian Superstore near 16th Avenue and Sarcee Trail, where he said bottled water was already sold out.
No warning signs
Since the 2024 break, the Bearspaw south feeder main has been continuously monitored, but there were no warning signs before this latest break, the city says.
“The system was working normally at the time of the failure,” said Chris Graham with the city’s infrastructure department, who added there were no indications of any wire snaps in the lead-up to the failure.
Graham said the pipe was being continuously monitored with acoustic fibre optic equipment.
A former senior infrastructure engineer with Calgary’s water department described the monitoring process as tiny microphones listening 24/7 for any activity.
Roy Brander said normally inspectors might hear a series of “pings” weeks or months apart, indicating wires snapping that could lead to a break.
“For the main to suddenly just rip open like a zipper is just an absolute jaw-dropper, and it’s going to be one for the textbooks,” said Brander, who retired in 2016.
Inside a stranded truck during Calgary’s water main break
Eric Wisniewski and his wife, Amanda, were suddenly surrounded by flooding on 16th Avenue N.W. after a major water main break in Calgary. They had to stand on the roof of their truck before they were rescued by emergency crews.
City officials said it was too early to speak to the levels of chloride in the area at the time. Sodium chloride, a form of road salt, is believed to have played a factor in the 2024 break.
The early identification of the location of the break does, however, put the city “days ahead of what happened the previous time around,” Mayor Jeromy Farkas said.
Mackay said the pipe will need to be drained before digging can begin and the broken section replaced. Then the water will need to be refilled and tested to ensure its safety before the boil water advisory can be lifted.
She gave a timeline of seven to 10 days if there is only one repair to be made, but cautioned the city still needs to fully inspect the severity of the break.
“We go fast, but we don’t go so fast that we’re not protecting water quality,” Mackay said.
She said emergency adjustments have been made to distribute more water throughout the city from the Glenmore Water Treatment Plant, the smaller of Calgary’s two plants — something she says was a lesson learned from the last go around.
This City of Calgary map shows the main feeder line, indicated in red, that runs through the neighbourhoods of Montgomery and Bowness. That was the pipe that burst in June 2024. Early indications suggest the new break is related. (City of Calgary)
‘Ticking time bomb’
Farkas said about 2,000 homes and 100 businesses have been affected.
“This is not the first time that this has happened. I think Calgarians are going to be asking a lot of questions,” he told CBC Radio’s Calgary Eyeopener.
WATCH | Calgary’s mayor sits down with CBC Calgary, one day after a major water main break :
Mayor says Calgary ‘will be relentless’ about replacing troubled water main
Mayor Jeromy Farkas spoke to CBC’s Jo Horwood late Wednesday afternoon, one day after another major break in the Bearspaw feeder water main.
While he acknowledged the frustrations, he said there are overarching issues that need to be addressed — chiefly installing a replacement line parallel to the current main.
“Until we completely replace the pipe, this is a ticking time bomb that Calgarians will continue to live with,” Farkas said at Wednesday’s media availability.
In an interview with CBC News on Wednesday evening, Farkas said he’s pushing hard for the recommendations of an independent review of the 2024 water main break to be released in the coming weeks.
“This is not the first time that this has happened, and Calgarians are rightfully asking some really serious questions of our local leadership, the city administration, and we need to be able to show Calgarians that we have a plan so that this will never happen again,” said Farkas.
He said around 3,100 homes in Calgary are currently under a boil water advisory.
He said council is committed to implementing those recommendations so that a third major break does not happen.
Unlike in 2024, this break happened in the winter, when they’re about twice as likely to occur as in the summer, according to Brander. He says that’s because the soil around the pipes expands and contracts as temperatures fluctuate.
“The recent weather, which spiked down very cold and then very warm, is exactly the kind of thing that could have caused just a small soil movement,” he said.
And inspections do not paint a full picture of what is happening with the soil around the pipe, Brander said.
“I think sometimes you do everything you can do and the universe just hates you and sends you some bad luck, and we’re going to live and learn.”
