City of Calgary says water use remains too high as repairs enter critical stage

The City of Calgary says water use was above sustainable levels again on Thursday, despite renewed pleas from emergency officials for residents to cut back on their consumption.

Details released by the city on Friday show Calgary residents consumed 508 million litres of water on Thursday, which is up slightly from Wednesday’s usage of 507 million litres and above what the city says is the sustainable level of 485 million litres.

3:55
Calgary conserves water: big or small, how every drop counts

While city officials said crews have made “considerable progress” repairing the Bearspaw Feeder Main that ruptured on Dec. 30, they’ve also renewed a call for residents to reduce their water use to ensure there is enough available for essential services.

The Bearspaw Feeder Main normally supplies about 60 per cent of Calgary’s drinking water. The break has forced the city to rely on the much smaller Glenmore treatment plant for water, which is running about three times its normal capacity.

“If this continues day after day, our storage levels gradually drop, reducing our ability to keep the system stable and to have water available for emergencies like firefighting,” said Sue Henry, the head of Calgary’s Emergency Management Agency.

Get weekly health news

Receive the latest medical news and health information delivered to you every Sunday.

During a Thursday press conference, Henry issued a plea for all city residents to reduce their water consumption by 30 litres per day, a goal she said could be accomplished if everyone flushed their toilet just three times less each day.

2:03
Calgary ‘turning corner’ in Bearspaw feeder main repairs

Michael Thompson, the city’s general manager of infrastructure services, says crews will continue to work Friday to backfill the excavation around the replacement section of the pipe that has now been put in place.

However, Thompson said there are still several critical steps that need to be taken before the pipe can be put back in service.

“We have four next steps — filling the feeder main, testing the water, stabilizing the system and easing out of water conservation. This is delicate work. Each one of these steps carries risk, and it is likely that we could have setbacks along the way,” said Thompson.

“Right now, a seven-kilometre section of the pipe is empty. Our first step is to refill it. It will take approximately 48 hours to fill the pipe using almost 22 million litres of water. During the filling stage, the pipe will experience an increase in pressure, which increases the risk for all pipes that we are returning to service. The risk on this pipe is increased because of its fragile condition. We are managing this risk by filling the pipe carefully and monitoring the pipe with sensors as we fill it,” Thompson added.

In case there is another failure of the pipe while it is being refilled, the city is also removing two sections of the Bow River flood barrier along Montgomery Boulevard.

The barrier was installed to keep floodwater out of the community, but in the event of a watermain rupture, it would instead trap water in the community, so removing the sections would help protect the community by allowing water from any watermain break to flow into the Bow River.

Once the pipe has been filled, the city will take samples of the water that will be sent to a lab for testing to ensure it’s safe to drink before it is put back in service.

Even if everything goes smoothly, the city warns the Feeder Main will need to be shut down again in the spring to allow further urgent repairs to be done on other sections of the pipe that are badly corroded.

2:00
Calgary ‘chronically underinvesting’ in its water system the last 20 years: report

&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.