Iirc the discussion around the major break a year and a half ago was that the pipe was said to last at least a couple decades more, so it’s breaking earlier than it was pitched which is like 50-60 years instead of 70-80 years?
Iirc those pipes were never sold as 70 year pipes, and we already had data from other cities that they are failing.
"Oh they haven't failed yet, guess they're good for another 10 years!" Even though they were originally, if memory serves, a 30 year product.
And regardless of projected lifespan, those exact pipes are failing for many cities. They're known to be failing at their current age, and the only reason to leave them in the ground now is because they will be expensive to replace.
Straight from the city of Calgary website: problem areas to begin repairs in spring 2026, the break that just happened is in this area where repairs were set to begin.
Expected life of these pipes:
“These pipes can last a long time, as much as 100 years in ideal conditions. 98% of Calgary’s feeder mains, which are critical pipes in our distribution system, are in good or very good condition. This is aligned with the target we have set for our system. “
Doesn’t read like they’re past their projected life span to me.
Nowhere did I say “generally accepted” in my last comment?
For sure you’re right that there are plenty of factors. My whole point that I have been commenting on is that you stated that the pipes are overdue to be replaced when the city is saying that they installed the pipes with the expectation that they’ll last much longer. Surely since you know so much more than the team at the city of Calgary over the last 50 years, you could’ve warned them that they were expecting 50 years too much of their infrastructure then?
All the "100 year" claims are "Generally accepted."
And the fact remains, this type of pipe has been failing across the continent at its current age. It is at it's end of life, which means it should have been replaced already.
The 100 year claim is recent, because under ideal conditions they have been lasting that long.
Running along a river bed is not ideal conditions. In a region prone to weather swings and frost heaves makes it worse.
I'm saying that 100 year argument is bunk. They're repeating the salesman's pitch.
It is good that this pipe was already slated to be repaired this year - it should mean the parts needed are already on the way.
Surely you can provide some sources to back up your claims? I did and they’re conflicting with what you’re saying and anyone is just suppose to take you at face value over quotes straight from
The city that spent months on the work fixing the last break as well as evaluating the condition of the rest of the main.
Nenshi and Gondek have a lot of egg on their faces as this work should have been done instead money was used for less important priorities. Prove me wrong here, but this should have been fixed.
IIRC those contracts were easy to come by, corners were cut and I believe I heard anecdotes of people being drunk on the job installing them. Also a lack of proper maintenance over the years.
We've had decades of wild temperature swings. We have NOT had decades of major water mains like this breaking every year causing loss of water to thousands of homes and water restrictions.
No one forgot. Decades of provincial Conservative rule kept taxes "low" and maintenance on the back burner as the municipal government expanded the city beyond the limits of sprawl.
Except that the municipalities are a "creation" of the provincial government (as the current leader of the UCP likes to remind Albertans) and major infrastructure upgrades would likely be funded through provincial grants.
How much grant funding do you think EPCOR has historically received for its Edmonton water distribution system and how much do you think the city of Calgary has gotten for its water distribution? I’ll give you a hint, it’s all funded by customers and built into rates
When that cement mortar lined spiral wound c 605 pipe was installed, infrastructure financing in Alberta generally was one third federal, one third provincial, and one third municipal.
There is a lot of that brand name Hyprescon pipe installed in Alberta, usually large transmission and distribution mains, before the advent of C 900 and C 905 PVC. When I was promoted as a water operator into management, I filled out municipal grant applications.
Wastewater treatment facilities ( new Federal ammonia standards ) and transmission mains ( Province encouraged fewer treatment plants, and more transmission mains ) are still funded by three levels of government in many cases.
I've repaired a few hundred water mains . The Alberta government cut infrastructure spending in 2019 by 25%, and has still not restored it, while infrastructure ages and the population grows.
The current Provincial focus ( about a decade ) is on self- funded utilities-operate and maintain from utility rates.
If Hyprescon is lowered into the ditch with chains, in 1975, instead of softer slings, the external mortar gets scruffed.
A few decades later, corrosion eats the thin wall metal. That was the cause of most of the leaks I've repaired on those pipes.
They're a bitch to fix, because the pipe requires specialty fittings, on transmission main design, each piece is manufactured to fit in one place . After my first leak, I kept fittings in stock, they're often two months order from Montreal.
There are common hyprescon adapter coupler fittings to transition to pvc, ( two months away if you don't have them ) you cut out at least 24 feet, and bolt in PVC.
Calgary no doubt has a stock of fittings now, after the previous break, so it's a matter of threeish days to cut in a piece.
Oh please. I dislike our current government as much as anyone, but this is not a "Conservative funding" issue.
We know what is causing this pipe to break. It was crap when it was bought 50 years ago and nobody has bothered looking at it/fixing it since then.
It's not like any of the 8 mayors we have had since the original installation in 1975 have made any kind of noise about it before it broke.
If this was truly a provincial funding issue, every single one of those mayors would have been complaining about it and warning about the potential impact if the repairs/maintenance wasn't funded.
We know what is causing this pipe to break. It was crap when it was bought 50 years ago and nobody has bothered looking at it/fixing it since then.
So the robot camera inspections of this pipe in 2024, along with others adjacent to it, was that not "looking at it?" What do you expect them to do, excavate every water main?
Yes, and the section that failed was scheduled to have repairs two years after that report. WTH does it take 2 years to repair something we know is going to fail?
Because the province will usually only 'invest' in projects that may benefit the province as a whole. Or is it's one of their buddies at the helm of said project.
Municipal property taxes still cover the lion's share of local infrastructure, and maintenance. Especially after the UCP cut funding to municipalities as soon as they took office, forcing municipalities to lay of workers, cut programs, and raise property taxes to cover the shortfalls.
The UCP has pulled back funding for municipalities to spend on other things so the municipalities have had to raise property taxes to meet their needs.
Negative. Water utility systems are the responsibility of municipalities under the Municipal Government Act. Only thing the province can do is provide funding for clean up.
It’s literally the cities responsibility, as laid out in the provincial regulation. The province isn’t responsible for water main maintenance.
”The water utility system, including the operation, maintenance, repair, and construction of water mains and feeder mains within the city. This is enabled under the Municipal Government Act and Calgary’s Water Utility Bylaw, which authorizes the city to operate water supply and distribution for residents and businesses.”
It likely would, really. Updated infrastructure that targets conservation and energy efficiency through a federal fund designed to combat climate change would certainly help.
Technically city utilities are well below the frost line where temperatures are fairly consistent and don't experience much fluctuation, especially any sort of rapid warming or cooling.
The ground doesn't temperature swing like the air. The ground takes time to freeze and time to unfreeze. Like, the weather can be +10 for a few days but the ground is still frozen solid. Then when you get deep enough, the ground temperature doesn't change at all. You go caving in the dead of winter or summer, that cave will be 5C year round.
The engineering report confirmed that road salt is eating through the pipes.
Do you realize what causes pipe breaks, if it is temperature swings? It's more about pipe thinning due to corrosion or material loss over its life than the actual swing. The cold freezes water which expands if it becomes ice. As long as the pipe wall is adequate, it won't hole through. In areas of thin walls, you'll have a fish mouth rupture and leak.
Most pipes are buried underground below the frost line to prevent exposure to extreme cold and ground freezing.
I am not familiar with a city infrastructure, but in industry, it is a generally accepted practice that you only need freeze protection heat tracing and insulation if you anticipate a pipe dead leg - as long as the fluid is in motion it shouldn't freeze.
Pipe spool inspection, corrosion protection, and replacements are at the core of mechanical integrity.
Yeah, frost can lead to pulling water from soil below, sometimes compacting it. But subsurface soil in that area is likely mostly silty clay, which is less prone to frost heave.
Also, I seem to recall the top of the pipe is 12 ft below grade.
I haven’t been doing any digging this year, but I would be surprised if frost is deeper than 4ft.
So once again, how will fluctuations in weather affect the pipe sitting sub 9ft below grade?
No glacial silts and sandy soil are the most prone to frost heave. Clay and gravels are the least prone (and for very different reasons).
How do you get frost heave in clay when it is impermeable to water? The most important part of frost heave is the capillary movement of water. If you don’t have capillary movement, you can’t get frost heave.
Frost heave doesn’t move soil, it moves water. The displacement below the frost line can cause compaction of the surrounding soil. But we’re not talking 8 ft of soil compaction, especially in soils saturated in groundwater. Plus the pipes are laid in gravel…
It’s also a yearly issue and engineers understand it. Weekly fluctuations of air temperatures won’t affect moisture, or temperature of soil 12-24 ft below grade.
And you don’t know what frost heave is… frost heave is driven by pulling water through capillary movement from unfrozen soil below its the major component of frost heave. Frozen soil alone does not heave.
How much does pure water expand when frozen? How much does clay expand with 5-10% moisture content? Would you consider this “significant expansion”?
This is all ignoring the fact that the ground around the pipe DOES NOT FREEZE. It doesn’t even warm up during the summer. At 12 feet below grade, the temperature of the soil remains pretty much static.
The fact remains that Calgary is aging and our infrastructure is showing it. The same holds true for every municipality in Canada. The City of Calgary has excellent Engineering departments and support from their technology partners at the U of C, SAIT and third party contractors. We’ll fix this.
True, but the cause could be anything from that to someone being negligent with directional boring. There's no sense jumping to any conclusions until the facts come out.
The usual suspects are already saying how much better farkas is handling it than gondek did.
Not sure what he’s done yet other than confirm a water main has broken, but I guess it’s better to hear that news from a white man than a brown woman 🤷♂️
Well he was posting multiple updates last night on the Calgary subreddit so that is a pretty good start... I guess it's easier to assume everyone is just racist though
literally the exact same updates that people were criticizing gondek for. "a pipe is broken, we don't know which one yet but probably the feeder main, conserve water, nobody is injured".
the only difference is that it was getting posted from the jeromy farkas reddit account in addition to official updates on the city website.
Gondek herself admitted that the information and updates she provided in the early stages last time were slow and confusing. Farkas has clearly taken action on that by providing multiple updates throughout the night of the break to keep everyone on the same page.
Time will tell if he keeps this up but it is obviously a much better start and is clearly the result of lessons learned from the previous occurrence.
"Nenshi was told about all these pipes when he was mayor and he chose to build art instead"
"Nenshi should've fixed this long ago"
He lives rent free in their heads.
I did see one good comment though.
"If Nenshi replaced these pipes when he was mayor you'd complain about him wasting money replacing perfectly good pipes. If he had gotten them replaced and they still broke down the line, you'd be bitching either way."
Or people could stop being idiots and realize that catastrophic water main breaks aren't solely the responsibility of the mayor of the city in which they occur.
The entire city is now under water restrictions. The ask is 3 minute showers, only flushing when necessary and only using dishwashers and washing machines when they are full.
I live alone and don’t cook much, so I often fill the top rack of my dishwasher in a few days while only having utensils and a plate or 2 on the bottom.
To be fair, dishwashers are incredibly water efficient now. I'm pretty sure I use more water hand washing. Electricity use is a different matter though. I'd be curious to learn about how efficient washers are though.
Didn’t Calgary plunder their emergency fund to artificially deflate their property tax increase? The province better not step in to help Calgary again. They vote conservative, they should be fiscally responsible.
Has anyone seen the exact borders/roads of the boil water advisory other than the hand drawn maps? Is everyone within the maps experiencing reduced pressure?
Reinforced concrete, the salt decreases the pH of the surface of the which makes the rebar rust and eventually snap. Its a known failure point of these pipes, particularity those built in the late 70s
The wild temperature swings for the entire month of December are definitely not good on pipes.
Especially pipes that have been in operation well past their original projected lifespan.
"It ain't broke, don't fix it" leads to exactly stuff like this.
People would moan about the money spent to replace existing pipes.
People would be in a fury over the level of redundancy needed to make events like this not matter.
(And obligatory: let's build AI data centers that'll need even more water!) =\
Iirc the discussion around the major break a year and a half ago was that the pipe was said to last at least a couple decades more, so it’s breaking earlier than it was pitched which is like 50-60 years instead of 70-80 years?
Iirc those pipes were never sold as 70 year pipes, and we already had data from other cities that they are failing.
"Oh they haven't failed yet, guess they're good for another 10 years!" Even though they were originally, if memory serves, a 30 year product.
And regardless of projected lifespan, those exact pipes are failing for many cities. They're known to be failing at their current age, and the only reason to leave them in the ground now is because they will be expensive to replace.
water main break info
Straight from the city of Calgary website: problem areas to begin repairs in spring 2026, the break that just happened is in this area where repairs were set to begin.
Expected life of these pipes: “These pipes can last a long time, as much as 100 years in ideal conditions. 98% of Calgary’s feeder mains, which are critical pipes in our distribution system, are in good or very good condition. This is aligned with the target we have set for our system. “
Doesn’t read like they’re past their projected life span to me.
"Generally accepted" is not the same as "reliable for critical infrastructure."
Especially when that's dependent on installation and soil conditions.
Of course the city website will quote that optimistic number. I bet it didn't say that when the pipes were originally installed!
Nowhere did I say “generally accepted” in my last comment?
For sure you’re right that there are plenty of factors. My whole point that I have been commenting on is that you stated that the pipes are overdue to be replaced when the city is saying that they installed the pipes with the expectation that they’ll last much longer. Surely since you know so much more than the team at the city of Calgary over the last 50 years, you could’ve warned them that they were expecting 50 years too much of their infrastructure then?
All the "100 year" claims are "Generally accepted."
And the fact remains, this type of pipe has been failing across the continent at its current age. It is at it's end of life, which means it should have been replaced already.
The 100 year claim is recent, because under ideal conditions they have been lasting that long.
Running along a river bed is not ideal conditions. In a region prone to weather swings and frost heaves makes it worse.
I'm saying that 100 year argument is bunk. They're repeating the salesman's pitch.
It is good that this pipe was already slated to be repaired this year - it should mean the parts needed are already on the way.
Surely you can provide some sources to back up your claims? I did and they’re conflicting with what you’re saying and anyone is just suppose to take you at face value over quotes straight from The city that spent months on the work fixing the last break as well as evaluating the condition of the rest of the main.
Nenshi and Gondek have a lot of egg on their faces as this work should have been done instead money was used for less important priorities. Prove me wrong here, but this should have been fixed.
IIRC those contracts were easy to come by, corners were cut and I believe I heard anecdotes of people being drunk on the job installing them. Also a lack of proper maintenance over the years.
That pipe was going to be replaced this March
We have wild temperature swings due to chinooks every year.
Yeah and it's really bad for underground pipes.
We've had decades of wild temperature swings. We have NOT had decades of major water mains like this breaking every year causing loss of water to thousands of homes and water restrictions.
So is forgetting to maintain infrastructure
No one forgot. Decades of provincial Conservative rule kept taxes "low" and maintenance on the back burner as the municipal government expanded the city beyond the limits of sprawl.
This ain’t under the provincial jurisdiction, this is all on the municipality
The government of Alberta has taken millions from municipalities in the last several years feel free to look it up.
Except that the municipalities are a "creation" of the provincial government (as the current leader of the UCP likes to remind Albertans) and major infrastructure upgrades would likely be funded through provincial grants.
How much grant funding do you think EPCOR has historically received for its Edmonton water distribution system and how much do you think the city of Calgary has gotten for its water distribution? I’ll give you a hint, it’s all funded by customers and built into rates
When that cement mortar lined spiral wound c 605 pipe was installed, infrastructure financing in Alberta generally was one third federal, one third provincial, and one third municipal.
There is a lot of that brand name Hyprescon pipe installed in Alberta, usually large transmission and distribution mains, before the advent of C 900 and C 905 PVC. When I was promoted as a water operator into management, I filled out municipal grant applications.
Wastewater treatment facilities ( new Federal ammonia standards ) and transmission mains ( Province encouraged fewer treatment plants, and more transmission mains ) are still funded by three levels of government in many cases.
I've repaired a few hundred water mains . The Alberta government cut infrastructure spending in 2019 by 25%, and has still not restored it, while infrastructure ages and the population grows.
The current Provincial focus ( about a decade ) is on self- funded utilities-operate and maintain from utility rates.
If Hyprescon is lowered into the ditch with chains, in 1975, instead of softer slings, the external mortar gets scruffed.
A few decades later, corrosion eats the thin wall metal. That was the cause of most of the leaks I've repaired on those pipes.
They're a bitch to fix, because the pipe requires specialty fittings, on transmission main design, each piece is manufactured to fit in one place . After my first leak, I kept fittings in stock, they're often two months order from Montreal.
There are common hyprescon adapter coupler fittings to transition to pvc, ( two months away if you don't have them ) you cut out at least 24 feet, and bolt in PVC.
Calgary no doubt has a stock of fittings now, after the previous break, so it's a matter of threeish days to cut in a piece.
Fantastic reply! Kudos
Were you filling out grant applications for the city of Calgary or aqualta/epcor or you’re talking about smaller municipalities
If a bird takes a dump on your car you'd still figure out a way to pin that on UCP, won't you?
This is decades of conservative provincial rule coming to roost.
True. Municipal conservatives can also be to blame.
Ric McIvor was infamous for saying no to many things.
Municipalities are in fact provincial jurisdiction.
Oh please. I dislike our current government as much as anyone, but this is not a "Conservative funding" issue.
We know what is causing this pipe to break. It was crap when it was bought 50 years ago and nobody has bothered looking at it/fixing it since then.
It's not like any of the 8 mayors we have had since the original installation in 1975 have made any kind of noise about it before it broke.
If this was truly a provincial funding issue, every single one of those mayors would have been complaining about it and warning about the potential impact if the repairs/maintenance wasn't funded.
So the robot camera inspections of this pipe in 2024, along with others adjacent to it, was that not "looking at it?" What do you expect them to do, excavate every water main?
I expect them to inspect / repair infrastructure on a normal timeline, not wait until things have broken and have to pay for expensive rework then.
These pipes already had a history of failure, but several of our municipal governments ignored this and just passed the problem along to the next guy.
Why did we wait until after it broke to have these inspections done?
Regardless, the point is, none of this has anything to do with provincial funding.
But they did inspect them last year.
Yes, and the section that failed was scheduled to have repairs two years after that report. WTH does it take 2 years to repair something we know is going to fail?
Thr provincial government is responsible for city infrastructure?
Funding and taxation is both provincial and municipal. The provincial government would likely fund major infrastructure projects, yes.
Then why the fuck am I paying properly tax? Why does it keep going up?!
Because the province will usually only 'invest' in projects that may benefit the province as a whole. Or is it's one of their buddies at the helm of said project.
Municipal property taxes still cover the lion's share of local infrastructure, and maintenance. Especially after the UCP cut funding to municipalities as soon as they took office, forcing municipalities to lay of workers, cut programs, and raise property taxes to cover the shortfalls.
Inflation - although the most recent budget doesn't even allow for that.
$1.1 billion has been committed to water infrastructure.
This is absolutely a municipal issue.
The UCP has pulled back funding for municipalities to spend on other things so the municipalities have had to raise property taxes to meet their needs.
It doesn't really go up over the long run, it adjusts to inflation.
If you own a single family home, you are not paying enough property tax to support the infrastructure required to sustain the existence of your home.
Negative. Water utility systems are the responsibility of municipalities under the Municipal Government Act. Only thing the province can do is provide funding for clean up.
Which level of government is that Act under again?
It’s literally the cities responsibility, as laid out in the provincial regulation. The province isn’t responsible for water main maintenance.
”The water utility system, including the operation, maintenance, repair, and construction of water mains and feeder mains within the city. This is enabled under the Municipal Government Act and Calgary’s Water Utility Bylaw, which authorizes the city to operate water supply and distribution for residents and businesses.”
Straight from the Kings Printer.
Maybe declaring a climate emergency will help.
It likely would, really. Updated infrastructure that targets conservation and energy efficiency through a federal fund designed to combat climate change would certainly help.
Except they did 5 years ago.... has not done a thing.
Taxes "low" wtf?
Yes - low.
If you're going to point fingers you'd be better off starting with Nenshi before the UCP.
Instead of being a child why not wait to figure out what happened?
So having the line scheduled to be replaced this upcoming is forgetting eh?
As its scheduled to occur after the line exploded the first time, yeah probably.
Technically city utilities are well below the frost line where temperatures are fairly consistent and don't experience much fluctuation, especially any sort of rapid warming or cooling.
Not really
The ground doesn't temperature swing like the air. The ground takes time to freeze and time to unfreeze. Like, the weather can be +10 for a few days but the ground is still frozen solid. Then when you get deep enough, the ground temperature doesn't change at all. You go caving in the dead of winter or summer, that cave will be 5C year round.
The engineering report confirmed that road salt is eating through the pipes.
Do you realize what causes pipe breaks, if it is temperature swings? It's more about pipe thinning due to corrosion or material loss over its life than the actual swing. The cold freezes water which expands if it becomes ice. As long as the pipe wall is adequate, it won't hole through. In areas of thin walls, you'll have a fish mouth rupture and leak.
Most pipes are buried underground below the frost line to prevent exposure to extreme cold and ground freezing.
I am not familiar with a city infrastructure, but in industry, it is a generally accepted practice that you only need freeze protection heat tracing and insulation if you anticipate a pipe dead leg - as long as the fluid is in motion it shouldn't freeze.
Pipe spool inspection, corrosion protection, and replacements are at the core of mechanical integrity.
Explain how pipes under the frost line are affected by wild temperature swings in the winter.
[deleted]
Yeah, frost can lead to pulling water from soil below, sometimes compacting it. But subsurface soil in that area is likely mostly silty clay, which is less prone to frost heave.
Also, I seem to recall the top of the pipe is 12 ft below grade.
I haven’t been doing any digging this year, but I would be surprised if frost is deeper than 4ft.
So once again, how will fluctuations in weather affect the pipe sitting sub 9ft below grade?
[deleted]
No glacial silts and sandy soil are the most prone to frost heave. Clay and gravels are the least prone (and for very different reasons).
How do you get frost heave in clay when it is impermeable to water? The most important part of frost heave is the capillary movement of water. If you don’t have capillary movement, you can’t get frost heave.
Frost heave doesn’t move soil, it moves water. The displacement below the frost line can cause compaction of the surrounding soil. But we’re not talking 8 ft of soil compaction, especially in soils saturated in groundwater. Plus the pipes are laid in gravel…
It’s also a yearly issue and engineers understand it. Weekly fluctuations of air temperatures won’t affect moisture, or temperature of soil 12-24 ft below grade.
[deleted]
And you don’t know what frost heave is… frost heave is driven by pulling water through capillary movement from unfrozen soil below its the major component of frost heave. Frozen soil alone does not heave.
How much does pure water expand when frozen? How much does clay expand with 5-10% moisture content? Would you consider this “significant expansion”?
This is all ignoring the fact that the ground around the pipe DOES NOT FREEZE. It doesn’t even warm up during the summer. At 12 feet below grade, the temperature of the soil remains pretty much static.
Jesus…😳
Before the city administration critics show up to destroy the comment section:
The fact remains that Calgary is aging and our infrastructure is showing it. The same holds true for every municipality in Canada. The City of Calgary has excellent Engineering departments and support from their technology partners at the U of C, SAIT and third party contractors. We’ll fix this.
Didn’t U of C have a world class concrete research facility around 2000?
They still do I assume. The Civil Engineering Department.
True, but the cause could be anything from that to someone being negligent with directional boring. There's no sense jumping to any conclusions until the facts come out.
Valid point.
The extent is pretty obvious once you watch the videos people took inside cars and see the giant hole
So are we all going to blame this on Farkas? I mean, everyone blamed the last one on Gondek. So that tracks, I guess?
The usual suspects are already saying how much better farkas is handling it than gondek did.
Not sure what he’s done yet other than confirm a water main has broken, but I guess it’s better to hear that news from a white man than a brown woman 🤷♂️
Well he was posting multiple updates last night on the Calgary subreddit so that is a pretty good start... I guess it's easier to assume everyone is just racist though
literally the exact same updates that people were criticizing gondek for. "a pipe is broken, we don't know which one yet but probably the feeder main, conserve water, nobody is injured".
the only difference is that it was getting posted from the jeromy farkas reddit account in addition to official updates on the city website.
Gondek herself admitted that the information and updates she provided in the early stages last time were slow and confusing. Farkas has clearly taken action on that by providing multiple updates throughout the night of the break to keep everyone on the same page.
Time will tell if he keeps this up but it is obviously a much better start and is clearly the result of lessons learned from the previous occurrence.
I'm sure people will blame Nenshi, and therefore the Alberta NDP as a whole.
I can see the attack ads already. “How could Nenshi, Gondek and Trudeau do this to us!?”
"The Nenshi/Gondek/Trudeau/NDP coalition. They're all just like Justin."
Conservative voter: "Ooh, a clever play on words that caught my attention. You have my vote!"
I already saw people blaming Nenshi for this.
"Nenshi was told about all these pipes when he was mayor and he chose to build art instead"
"Nenshi should've fixed this long ago"
He lives rent free in their heads.
I did see one good comment though.
"If Nenshi replaced these pipes when he was mayor you'd complain about him wasting money replacing perfectly good pipes. If he had gotten them replaced and they still broke down the line, you'd be bitching either way."
Well I guess by doing nothing Nenshi did the right thing 🤔💩
Too bad they missed the part where the province and federal govt pulled back infrastructure funding.
Right wing versions of the people on this sub basically
Or people could stop being idiots and realize that catastrophic water main breaks aren't solely the responsibility of the mayor of the city in which they occur.
I mean people could stop being idiots, but most won’t.
Why not blame Canada as well? This clearly would never happen if we separated /S
My first thought as well. Perhaps Trump will help
I'm assuming the current council will blame the previous council. Or "City Admin", which seems to be a convenient punching bag for any issue.
I wonder if Farkas will get this solved in a day unlike Joyti that was roasted relentlessly for the watermain break.
Conservative utopia.
Didn't this happen like a year ago?
Yes, apparently the new break is just down the street from the last one.
[deleted]
The entire city is now under water restrictions. The ask is 3 minute showers, only flushing when necessary and only using dishwashers and washing machines when they are full.
Wild to think that people do half loads for a dishwasher or laundry. I don't see the advantage.
I live alone and don’t cook much, so I often fill the top rack of my dishwasher in a few days while only having utensils and a plate or 2 on the bottom.
Yea. When I was a bachelor the dishwasher ran maybe twice a week, and never full.
Now with three kids it's full every day...
It's probably just faster to do them by hand.
I have a dishwasher, but Christmas evening was the first time I ran it in probably 8 months lol
To be fair, dishwashers are incredibly water efficient now. I'm pretty sure I use more water hand washing. Electricity use is a different matter though. I'd be curious to learn about how efficient washers are though.
This way I only have to own two sets of clothes. Wash one while I'm wearing the other!
Parkdale, Montgomery and Point McKay
Didn’t Calgary plunder their emergency fund to artificially deflate their property tax increase? The province better not step in to help Calgary again. They vote conservative, they should be fiscally responsible.
How dare you suggest they be responsible for their own decisions!
Wonder if property values in Bowness take a hit because of this. It's happened twice now
Again?!
Has anyone seen the exact borders/roads of the boil water advisory other than the hand drawn maps? Is everyone within the maps experiencing reduced pressure?
Great job Farkas!
It's years of road salt. That's the major problem.
What type of pipe material is it?
Reinforced concrete, the salt decreases the pH of the surface of the which makes the rebar rust and eventually snap. Its a known failure point of these pipes, particularity those built in the late 70s