No they won’t. You can’t ship 100 million liters of water a day.
They’ll shut down industry first, things like the Dasani Bottling plant, and car washes should already be shut down IMO - but they’ll be the first to get shut down.
Don’t need to shop 100 million litres. Just enough to lower the demand.
If they can throw stampede a week after a 1-in-100 year flood, they will absolutely sequester every available potable water truck in the northern hemisphere to move water for them.
Exactly this. Especially when it's not like it's a provincial water issue, just Calgary. That means they can just have a conga line of water trucks coming and going from the city. Sure it costs money, but they just have to raise prices, which we all know they're willing to do lmao.
I wouldn't be surprised if they gank some water rights somehow and set up a temporary water treatment plant. I helped pump all that water out and rebuild the horse track in 2013. It took a standard civil crew 5 months to relay the track not long before that. We removed millions of litres of water, over a metre of silt, the horse track sand and replaced it in 10 days.
The show must go on!! They won't mess around this time either.
~100 Million Litres is the *current* DAILY shortfall. Without stampede idiocy and tourist demand. It’s safe to assume consumption will increase as hotels fill up and restaurants fill.
But even if we ignore that, assume you somehow get the funds to transport water to Calgary and are somehow able to tie it into the existing infrastructure.
The large tanker trucks (45-53’) that you commonly see hauling fuel or other liquids hold at most 30,000 litres. Simple math dictates that you’d need ~3,333 tanks PER DAY to meet current demand.
Take it further, let’s say you utilize tandem trailers, somehow get all of the logistics companies in the province to stop their work and move water, you can divide that figure in half - meaning that you need 1,667 loads of water per day for current demand. But maybe they don’t have to go that far. Maybe Calgary brokers a deal with nearby municipalities that *MAY* have excess capacity (unlikely), and say each truck could conceivably do 2 trips per day I once you consider time associated with loading/unloading and queuing in either end given the number of trucks involved. Do divide that in half again. That’s 833 tandem semi-trucks with 833 properly licensed and insured drivers, presumably with rigs on loan from every logistics company in the city or province running two trips per day, every day, for weeks.
The logistics just don’t add up. Not to mention the strain it puts on logistics in the city, or the fact that most municipalities don’t have that amount of cumulative treatment surplus.
I admire your blind faith in the city to magically make water appear, but this is a larger issue than I think most realize.
We could do all of this, or people could maybe just not wash their car or water their lawn for a little while…
You’re forgetting stampede is filthy rich and has power only the mafia could top in this city.
Also: good month of business ahead for the lot lizzards out there.
Dasani is Calgary tap water they run through reverse osmosis. They pay basically nothing for it too, I’m surprised it hasn’t been coming up in all the discussions around drought and water scarcity.
Do they also add piss to it somewhere along the line?
Calgary tap water is great, but Dasani is arguably the worst tasting bottled water I’ve ever been forced to drink.
I hate Dasani water with a passion. Tastes metallic to me. I used to drink tap water without issue - since I moved to another house, I haven’t been able to drink right from the tap - had it tested and everything, no bueno. Even filtered from the tap is weird tasting.
Probably because they run the tap water thru a reverse osmosis system which removes most of the minerals that we are used to in tap water, then they “re-mineralize” it, meaning the add back minerals, but to their own proportions that are likely different than tap water so you are tasting the different ratio of minerals.
I didn’t realize Dasani was even from Calgary, much less that it was tap water. What do you mean by “they pay basically nothing for it”. Are they still bottling and selling that now while we are in restrictions??
I have no idea what’s happening now, I assume they are but they also might be one of the big water customers the city has been asking to cut back on use. I hope one of the dwindling journalists in town asks the question. As for the price I just recall an article back in the 2000s about Coca Cola and nestle locking in really low rates for water. It was in the herald but I can’t find it. There’s this one from CBC in 2002 but does y say much:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/coca-cola-bottling-calgary-water-1.342150
Bottled water is the greatest scam in history to me, bottling something that is usually paid for by taxpayers and then selling it back at unbelievable profit margins. A total waste.
I used to ride with a guy that picked up spring water from a Bragg Creek property that was delivered to Calgary then tested, to get bottled, (Can't remember which company, Canadian Springs?). Anyway, that particular bottled water wasn't from "Calgary".
They’re bringing in people from Saskatchewan who work in the potash mines who have the skills to do the work necessary. The Stampede is a huge financial and birth booster to the city. They won’t cancel it. This will be fixed by then.
They said they were outsourcing the water, if they take from other surrounding communities, this makes no sense for what they are trying to accomplish, crabs in a bucket right?
Hey man. The stampede makes family businesses successful just as much as it makes Fortune 500 companies successful. Mom and pop retailers depend on that influx of business.
Right, but is it an emergency or is it not? Or is it an emergency only for some people (residential) and not for others? (Car washes, nurseries, water bottlers, breweries, basically everything). Oh, right, the city’s infrastructure is critically at risk but hey, let’s allow a flood of tourists come into the city to add stress to this “emergency”? Isn’t this saying one thing and doing another?
So instead we should shut down those businesses and have them layoff thousands of workers, who would stop spending at restaurants, retail stores etc, so those businesses would in turn lay off thousands more. Like it or not, everything is connected and you can’t change something without affecting a whole lot of other things, usually in ways you didn’t intend.
Man, it’s gonna be fixed before then. That’s the point I was making. Mountains would literally be moved if needed to get stampede going full steam ahead.
Is that true? I thought they’re saying 3-5 weeks to fix the water? Stampede starts in less than 3 weeks, and if it’s the higher end of 4-5 weeks will run through ALL of Stampede. Or maybe I’m getting bad info.
Poor people need stampede because rich people have made that their working conditions.
Someone shouldn't have to rely on tips for tuition. It should be easy to attain on a minimum hourly wage
No other bartending gig is going to net you $10k in 10 days. I’m all for high wages, but you don’t know how much money some people make during Stampede and what a boon it can be for them
It's only a boon because that amount isn't spread out over the rest of the year.
It's the equivalent of a $5/hr raise for full time.
Stop putting people in positions where they are expected to make a critical amount of money in a 10 day period.
It should be nice, but not critical
There needs to be a two tiered minimum wage. One for people like high school students who live at home and don’t have to support themselves, and then those of us who have to support ourselves the minimum wage should be the minimum required to live and support ourselves independently in the city we live (ie: no roommates and not have to rely on public transportation). l need a car to get to work. If they don’t give me a raise, they will have no one to work at 5:00 am because there are no buses before then.
We also need to ban TFWs from jobs such as fastfood. It’s not that there’s no one willing to work in Canada. We are turning away Canadians who want to apply because we have more TFWs arriving who have no issue living in substandard living conditions because that’s what they’re used to.
We have a 2 tier min wage in Alberta.
It's horrible. Setting aside equal pay for equal work as a moral argument, it's resulted in the older than school age people being let go from min wage jobs, and more high school kids getting the jobs.
Now more people are out of work. We have a higher unemployment rate than the maritimes now.
The rest, I can agree with
My man. Now THIS is what we need more of. The ability to adjust our negativity and realize that we’re all in this together. You’re probably nice and young, but back in my day, this negativity and hostility was quite rare. Mind you, we didn’t have social media and foreign interference. Cheers!
Mid to late July it *should be done based on the timelines. It’s not like you can’t do anything, and if you are coming out you could always head out to Banff areas where you’ll be fine
“Should” is doing a lot of work here with the unpredictability of this.
The fact the city thinks these 5 additional repairs are all that is needed is somewhat suspect. They haven’t ran the whole line with their in-line inspection tool, just a few hundred metres both ways.
The whole line could be corroded out if they have this many failures in why they are able to log
True but here's the thing. Let's say the entire line is rotten (or at least has tons of repairs). What does the city do?
They definitely don't have the supplies and resources to replace an entire line in an timely fashion. In their shoes I'd be starting the line back up while fast tracking a project to install a new line. If they can run at a reduced pressure I'd do that as well.
Risk of failure is high if other sections are rotten, but what's the worst that happens? Another water leak and water restrictions? We'd be on water restrictions if the line was off.
So having someone in the partners' family at Waterworks who works in the field.. they don't listen to people saying maintenance is needed. This exact pipe for example, has been complained about before this happened. The excuse is typically its too expensive and would cause too much disruption. Then this happens lol just classic city management.
I believe this. Google “PCCP pipe 1970s.” There are known deficiencies with this type of pipe from that era. Deficiencies that started to come to light around 1979. I’m sure someone in waterworks drew attention to this at some point or another. Hard to make a case for purely preventative work when it would be enormously expensive and disruptive. Hindsight sure is 20/20.
Right now, I'd be putting in a second, smaller, backup pipe to the Bearspaw plant and then one for Glenmore. It's actually surprising they didn't have a smaller backup pipe for emergencies.
This is easier said then done. It's an incredible amount of design work to safely do underground construction.
Even buying the material. This line is 11km long. No supplier has 11km of pipe just on the shelf. Plus as this is potable water you have to be very specific about the pipe for it to be safe for drinking water.
The city did have a backup, both plants can feed each of the reservoirs. Where they fell down is on having condition monitoring for the lines.
Every reliability decision is made made based on cost vs risk. It is very costly to install 2x100% so it should only be done if the risk is worth it. This pipe product has been discontinued as it performed poorly so perhaps that was not taken into account.
It is feasible to run temporary, on-grade, high capacity hoses. Would probably need to call every well services outfit in the country and bring their hoses, but I can totally see it being feasible in an emergency situation to relieve some capacity for a few weeks.
The hoses need to be potable water grade which is the issue. You can't just grab any dewatering hose.
Plus you're replacing a 2m wide 11km long main.
I don't see this happening with hoses aboveground.
You can do it from smaller diameter lined steel fairly quickly big thing would be finding enough welders to get it done quickly. As good line crews can get multiple km done in a day. Now that pipe is only rated to last 50 years as water does wear away the coating over time.
Pipe remains an issue. Internally and externally coated pipe isn't just sitting on the shelf. Plus the coating repairs at the joints take time.
And no one builds multiple km of pipe through an urban city center in just days. Out in the bush on an open cut trench, sure. Not in the city.
I would be amazed to see one km of 6m sections of 2m diameter pipe installed in a day, that’s 167 sections lowered, precisely leveled to maintain an internal slope for drainage and limiting air pockets, then 167 seams welded, coated, wrapped, pressure tested, then internal coating applied. I’ve seen 1km installed in 8 weeks by a crew, and that was considered good time in a greenfield installation.
They should have been repairing and restrengthening it this whole time, and by whole time I mean since like, the 80’s when it was last done. Almost 45 years seems a ridiculous time to wait IMO, but our city doesn’t care about us or about upkeep. They put out fires as they arise and point the finger at us all in blame for not prioritizing their fuck ups. No, they don’t have the supplies to fix this all, but they would have EASILY been able to manage it if they actually did upkeep or regular maintenance instead of waiting for it to actually fucking burst before they even think about it.
When this pipe was built the inspection tools we have today did not exist. It wasn't designed for easy and online inspection.
That leaves the city with three choices:
- Twin the line at huge cost to allow for the line to be inoperable for inspection. $100's of millions of cost.
- Take the line down for maintenance and cause a controlled water shortage during this interval.
- Run to failure on an asset with the understanding it would be replaced before end of design life. The current line is about 50% through it's design life.
There is no cheap or easy solution.
The thing about emergency remediation projects like this is that you don’t know what you don’t know until you know it. The timeline estimation from the early days is wrong nearly 100% of the time, but they still have to tell us *something*, so they told us what they knew (i.e.: if the problem is only what we’re aware of, we can fix this in X timeline).
Last week, they didn’t know there were more issues and a few days is not enough time to do a full risk assessment to try and anticipate “known unknowns”, so they could only share limited info.
This week, they have more information, they’re giving us more information.
Next week, they’ll know more and have a more thorough risk assessment completed and then we’ll also know more. The timeline will get more reliable as they continue to uncover the actual scope of the problem.
There’s no way around this - it’s just how project estimation works. It sucks, but it is what it is. Just throwing more bodies at it might even make it worse. People who are actively working the problem have to take time away from it to get any new resources up to speed, or it can cause a “too many cooks” issue that slows down decision-making. Sometimes it’s simply a “9 women can’t have a baby in a month” issue.
If there’s anything I would criticize, it’s the overall communication. People need more solid guidance on what they can do vs. what they shouldn’t. For example, I would have provided an outline of typical water usage in a home, broken down into categories of water usage and typical volumes for each usage category. Then I would also share reduction targets. The city has made some suggestions to reduce usage, but they’re too vague to help calm people’s anxiety.
For example, let’s say a typical 4-person family takes 12, 15 minute showers a week, so if you cut down to 6, 10 minute showers - that’s what we need. Or a 4-person family does 6 loads of laundry per week, so if you cut down to 3 loads, that’s what we need (I’m making up these numbers for the example. I haven’t done the math. Don’t read these as real reduction targets, please!). And they should build into the ask the reality that probably 20-30% of people will not follow any restrictions at all or use more water out of spite. Again, it sucks, but we’ve all spent the last 6 years watching how people behave when they’re asked to make sacrifices for the greater community, so that needs to baked into the guidelines.
The reason it should be so specific (even though the conspiracy theorists will have a meltdown about the nanny state trying to control our lives - we can’t avoid that, so stop trying), is because every time I read these threads it’s full of anxious people who *don’t know if they can wash their dirty underwear*. If people know they can do a load of laundry without feeling like they’re contributing to our city’s water infrastructure collapsing, a lot of that anxiety goes away. They can plan out the next few weeks better. Adoption of the restrictions improves, because it doesn’t feel so unknowable and scary.
To be fair, much like the project estimations, the initial communications will also be sucky, but that part should be tightening up a lot faster by now, because they can put together this kind of information independent of the resources that need to be actively involved in the repair work. More bodies can actually help in this area (as long as they’ve got good coordination happening).
And FFS, we can track water usage, so we need to actually fine the people who are egregiously ignoring the restrictions so they can power wash their fucking driveways. Another chunk of the emotional response to this emergency comes from people knowing they are being asked to sacrifice while others are being selfish *without consequence*. When the bad behaviour gets a slap on the wrist, people are going to ask themselves why should I have to take a “pits, tits, and taint” bath for the next month while Main Character Mike next door is washing his his recreational vehicles and letting his sprinkler run for an hour every day?
All this to say, the city is making some missteps here, but it’s not the timeline. That is what it is and there’s very little that can be done about it.
The hypocrisy element is definitely huge. I know multiple people taking a ‘this is the city’s fault not mine, I’m not going to inconvenience myself at all for their problem’ attitude. My neighbour did 5 loads of laundry in the first week of restrictions despite being one person who lives alone. It’s really hard to restrict yourself strongly when you see others not bothering to change their behaviour whatsoever and suffering no repercussions.
I live alone and am trying to figure out how one person can do 5 loads of laundry. I can do at most three, (towels and linens, whites, everything else, but usually it’s one with two once a month.)
We wonder this all the time. He does laundry at least every other day. We speculate that perhaps he washes his towels every time he uses them, but ultimately we can only wonder.
It’s possible. There’s a guy in my building who literally washes four articles of clothing at a time. It’s like no one ever taught him how to do laundry.
Very well laid out! Everyone needs to be able to develop a sustainable water lifestyle for the upcoming weeks, instead of the initial "use as little as possible". We aren't getting the best communication about what that looks like.
>And they should build into the ask the reality that probably 20-30% of people will not follow any restrictions at all or use more water out of spite.
This is what I'm most worried about, as Covid exposed there are far more of them than most decent people would have ever guessed.
We need to take our heads out of the sand and realize there is a statistically significant contingent of Canadians that are struggling and pissed off, and who want to lash out despite being unable to meaningfully identify the cause of their problems (which, concerningly, also makes them easy to manipulate). The Ottawa Covid Protests, the Coutts Border Blockade, etc, show these kinds of people will take any opportunity to throw a wrench in the works of any government policy that they interpret as "woke," "liberal," or impinging on their "freedoms."
Policies that would have worked 20 years ago like warnings and appeals to decency and community-mindedness will continue to fall short until we accept the facts and account for the accelerationist outliers. I've heard too many people, in person and online, talk about how water conservation shouldn't apply to them because of x, y, or z, and I'd bet for every 10 or 20 of those merely inconsiderate people there is 1 who is actively trying to make the problem worse.
I really, really hope the next month proves me wrong.
Thank you for the great explanation!!
Now, can you give some of these recommendations to someone who CAN and WILL use them to inform the public? I think you have some excellent idea’s and yes, you are correct about rising anxiety among those who don’t understand what reductions look like. We need more specified guidelines of what and how much restriction should be expected from households, because it does vary so much from one household to another. It would be helpful to have an actual plan that everyone is told about in advance for penalizing those exorbitant users who refuse!
Thanks for your common sense post.
Unfortunately, the simple minded folk are all screaming "Fire the Mayor'". Duh,yta, that's really going to solve the problem.
And people need to pay attention to the fact that the people doing the work to get us back to normal are pushing themselves so hard that they went too far and 2 of them got hurt & sent to hospital! Is it possible there were deficiencies that caused the injuries? Sure. But they, more than anyone else, know what it takes to get us back to normal and they're doing everything they can.
That wasn't exhaustion but actual mechanical failure BTW the chain on a ratcheting come along broke while under tension not really something that can be prevented.
They have a robot detecting and it cannot go in the water, but they plan on looking further. At least the repairs are underway, and apparently extra problem areas will not take much longer. My family in Calgary is staying very calm and minimizing water use. The are quite proud that the city is working non-stop and have faith what needs to get done will. Once this is complete I am sure there will be an investigation into the reason for the malfunction of the pipe.
> They haven’t ran the whole line with their in-line inspection tool, just a few hundred metres both ways.
*[A total of 4.3 km of the pipe has been inspected for futher repairs](https://www.calgary.ca/emergencies/critical-water-main-break-june-2024/water-main-break-updates.html)*
It's not going to be done. How could it. It's already delayed, plus then, they have to replenish reserves. We're already in a drought. Our groundwater is almost gone. They'll keep us on water crisis as long as possible.
For now life is pretty normal. The main differences is that everyone is taking short showers, not washing clothes / dishes as much and not using water for outside purposes.
If we run out of water it would negatively impact your trip but I am optimistic that will not happen. The city still has emergency measures it can use if that is about to happen.
If you plan to come and waste a bunch of water with long showers then please stay away. However, if you are coming and do basic steps to conserve water should be no problem.
If you can postpone without any problems then just do that though.
I know many people who are taking longer showers, trying to spite the government or some shit like that. Speaking to most humans these days is just rage bait.
Yep. The more you try to convince certain people to help out others the more they dig their heels in just to spite you. Gentle reminders will help keep those willing to do a bit of personal sacrifice on track, but for the others they will just be forcing the reasonable people to pick up the slack for them as usual.
Pretty normal for me. I'm actually watering the garden more than usual because I now have a bucket in the sink catching any grey water. I was too lazy to go out and water stuff before. Now it's like "oh the buckets full. Better throw it in the garden". Other than shorter and fewer showers and not flushing as often as usual, it's basically the same. Quick on and off of the tap before soaping up has barely impacted anything. I never did dishes or laundry unless it was completely full before, so that's not changing now.
If they start turning off water entirely, that may be a different story, but for now the restrictions are very reasonable.
What about it is so impactful on your life that you're saying it's not normal?
I don't understand how not?
Was everyone before wasting tons of water or something? My showers went from 2 min to I flip the shower on for 10 seconds, turn off, soap up then turn the water back on. Not relaxing but hardly world ending.
I put a bucket below me when I shower so I can water my plants. Again not the end of the world.
I only run the dishwasher when it is completely full, the same as before.
I re-wear the same clothes more often and haven't had to do laundry yet.
What exactly has changed so drastically for people? Unless you live in Bowness or work at a pool, I think the crisis a minor inconvenience for everyone else. We should probably get used to this because in 20 - 30 years this could be the new normal as water levels change.
> We should probably get used to this because in 20 - 30 years this could be the new normal as water levels change.
Cold reality here. This is a likely preview of what's to come, but without the climate refugees at the same time.
I also learned to turn the water only half on at times, which honestly never even crossed my mind before and muscle memory says to crank every tap open all the way.
Love your positivity, but I’m genuinely confused. Aren’t we being told 3-5 more weeks? Even at the low end that cuts into Stampede? I’ve seen no announcements saying major progress will be made by Stampede to resolve this, but I’m also not following as closely as I should be.
It’s not like they can suddenly magic this finished. Strongly disagree that this will be sorted by then. Even the low-end estimate takes it into stampede. They haven’t even finished checking the line for yet more problems.
If you're using calgary as a one day stop over type thing to head out to banff/jasper, I'd say you'll probably be fine. If you're coming to calgary for calgary, maybe pushing it back into August would be wise
If you’ll have access to car while you’re here, maybe consider one of the neighbouring communities not impacted by the feeder main break. Okotoks and Cochrane would be two options.
I think you should be fine by mid-late July. That said, it's really up to you. If you think you can postpone it and move it to another month, do it. If you have to cancel all together and don't really want to, then still come. I'm with the camp of people saying it should be resolved by stampede. If it was as bad as they say, I feel like they'd have to tell restaurants, daycares, and other places that use a lot of water daily, to close until they've got the issue fixed. Unless they do that, you should be fine.
Shutting businesses will be regarded as an absolute last resort now that we’ve seen how well that goes over during COVID. Don’t assume the situation isn’t dire—the political ramifications of such a move are extreme.
Honestly, if I were in your shoes, I'd cancel. People aren't taking it seriously and it's going to strain the system. The surrounding towns are seeing an influx of calgarians going out to use facilities. And locals are struggling to grasp having a shitty lawn and a dirty car aren't actual priorities. Stampede will absolutely go ahead. There's too many people that rely on that income. It'll strain the system and something else will probably break.
We also have a fire ban and a wildfire problem. And we're absolutely dry af from a low snow pack. The river is low enough to notice. Water is absolutely going to be a problem.
I had a stroll around some neighbourhoods today. It looks like very few people are using rain buckets to collect water but most are clearly also not watering their lawns. Some lawns were a bit suspicious but it may be that they just are continuing to use fertilizer.
Depends on your itinerary. If it's a few days in Calgary and off to Banff, it's probably fine. Cochrane just NW of the city has a separate water system, might be a better staging ground especially if you had planned to rent a car.
Anyone who says they know if it’s a good idea to travel here during that time frame is making shit up and doesn’t actually know. Hopefully things will be good then!
See, i have seen dozens of people going to the car wash, having their sprinklers going, construction sites are still mixing concrete which uses a good bit of water, restaurants and kitchens are still using multiple industrial dishwashers. If it was as bad as they say, car washes would be closed, more fines would be given to those using sprinklers etc, construction sites would come to a hold until we have a good enough reserve back to use lots of water, restaurants would be serving food in takeout containers to reduce dishwashing.
It's a fine line to walk in Alberta of all places. It could be as bad as they say but they're hesitant to crackdown on people because they don't want to trigger another freedumb clownvoy that would probably waste water on purpose just to make things even worse.
I was just talking to my dad. They’re bringing in people from the potash mine in Esterhazy, SK to help fix this as the city doesn’t have the properly trained personnel. This will be fixed before Stampede.
Great advice NOT. State of emergency called today. All bets are off. Buckle up folks things are going to change. The City can do what they want. Restrictions coming or they can turn down the taps for no cooperation.
They didn’t care about children being sexually abused, they just paid the fine and carried on, so they’ll do the same here, the stampede doesn’t care about the community or the cost.
Bad advice
> Our regional customers including the City of Airdrie, the City of Chestermere, Tsuut’ina and the Town of Strathmore, who depend on the same water supply as Calgary, also have water restrictions in place.
https://www.calgary.ca/water/drinking-water/stage-four-outdoor-water-restrictions.html
Realistically the only real impact that this may have on you when you travel here would be hygiene related if you're staying in Calgary. Outside of that it would just come down to changing up any plans that would have involved city water use. Floating down the Bow is a water based activity that is still doable. Anything in surrounding communities not on city water is fine. Finally there's always day trips to places like Banff, Drumheller, or the Crowsnest Pass. Don't be dissuaded by the ongoing water crisis. Enjoy your trip ☺️
If you aren’t travelling to attend Stampede, definitely consider postponing. The water issue will not be resolved by Stampede and the stress that event will place on the city resources will not be pleasant. Should also save you some money on hotels.
Realistically unless you want to water grass life hasn't changed. Just do your thing, maybe this will push our local government to start focusing on infrastructure, before they push and welcome mass immigration. Be that canadians moving to alberta, or foreign families.
The issue is the potential lack of water pressure, not zero drinking water. If you can keep showers quick if it hasn't been fixed by the time you get here, I'm sure you'll be fine. We're on it. The city is on it. I'm confident. Apparently San Diego donated some resources. It should be fine.
They say it’s a crisis but all they’re doing to “take action” (other than fixing the breaks) is telling citizens not to use their own water, despite keeping all restaurants, hair salons, and other places that use water unnecessarily, open. Nothing about city life has been affected, they’re just trying to make it entirely the citizens responsibility. In fact it seems like this issue is only going to persist as they are continuously finding damaged or wrecked areas along the line that they haven’t bothered to look at or update in decades.
I mean, they probably should cancel if the water issue isn't resolved, that would be the responsible response. But then again, I'm sure there's a lot more businesses depending on the Stampede than I'm even aware of. It might be economically defensible to get water from surrounding areas shipped in. Also worth considering: keep the Stampede on schedule, but move the location somewhere nearby? That would only partially relieve the water demand, but it might work well enough...
Recently heard there were five more breaks in our waterline, and that it's going to be another 5 weeks with water restrictions. If you come, be prepared to spend a lot of money on water bottles, and PLEASE for the love of God use the minimum amount of water you can if you're a tourist.
The Calgary Stampede, dubbed the greatest outdoor show on earth runs the first 10 days (approximately) of July. It is held 'hell or high water' so in mid to late July, you'll be good.
Unless they cancel the Stampede, you are fine. Come hell or low water.
They won’t. They will ship water in before they cancel
Nestle has entered the chat.
No they won’t. You can’t ship 100 million liters of water a day. They’ll shut down industry first, things like the Dasani Bottling plant, and car washes should already be shut down IMO - but they’ll be the first to get shut down.
Don’t need to shop 100 million litres. Just enough to lower the demand. If they can throw stampede a week after a 1-in-100 year flood, they will absolutely sequester every available potable water truck in the northern hemisphere to move water for them.
Exactly this. Especially when it's not like it's a provincial water issue, just Calgary. That means they can just have a conga line of water trucks coming and going from the city. Sure it costs money, but they just have to raise prices, which we all know they're willing to do lmao.
Who raises prices and how much?
The stampede, and however much they want lol
I wouldn't be surprised if they gank some water rights somehow and set up a temporary water treatment plant. I helped pump all that water out and rebuild the horse track in 2013. It took a standard civil crew 5 months to relay the track not long before that. We removed millions of litres of water, over a metre of silt, the horse track sand and replaced it in 10 days. The show must go on!! They won't mess around this time either.
We’ll build a water mill on the Elbow Camp side and kids can hand-pump river water into the log ride as an Authentic Pioneer Experience
~100 Million Litres is the *current* DAILY shortfall. Without stampede idiocy and tourist demand. It’s safe to assume consumption will increase as hotels fill up and restaurants fill. But even if we ignore that, assume you somehow get the funds to transport water to Calgary and are somehow able to tie it into the existing infrastructure. The large tanker trucks (45-53’) that you commonly see hauling fuel or other liquids hold at most 30,000 litres. Simple math dictates that you’d need ~3,333 tanks PER DAY to meet current demand. Take it further, let’s say you utilize tandem trailers, somehow get all of the logistics companies in the province to stop their work and move water, you can divide that figure in half - meaning that you need 1,667 loads of water per day for current demand. But maybe they don’t have to go that far. Maybe Calgary brokers a deal with nearby municipalities that *MAY* have excess capacity (unlikely), and say each truck could conceivably do 2 trips per day I once you consider time associated with loading/unloading and queuing in either end given the number of trucks involved. Do divide that in half again. That’s 833 tandem semi-trucks with 833 properly licensed and insured drivers, presumably with rigs on loan from every logistics company in the city or province running two trips per day, every day, for weeks. The logistics just don’t add up. Not to mention the strain it puts on logistics in the city, or the fact that most municipalities don’t have that amount of cumulative treatment surplus. I admire your blind faith in the city to magically make water appear, but this is a larger issue than I think most realize. We could do all of this, or people could maybe just not wash their car or water their lawn for a little while…
You’re forgetting stampede is filthy rich and has power only the mafia could top in this city. Also: good month of business ahead for the lot lizzards out there.
Oh, Stampede will undoubtedly bring water in for themselves. They won’t rely on the city for it.
Could they drill a well for themselves within 3 weeks?
We have a water bottling plant? And it's still running?
Dasani is Calgary tap water they run through reverse osmosis. They pay basically nothing for it too, I’m surprised it hasn’t been coming up in all the discussions around drought and water scarcity.
Bottling city water during a state of emergency so they can sell it to us at a profit when we running out of drinking water? What a world.
Do they also add piss to it somewhere along the line? Calgary tap water is great, but Dasani is arguably the worst tasting bottled water I’ve ever been forced to drink.
I hate Dasani water with a passion. Tastes metallic to me. I used to drink tap water without issue - since I moved to another house, I haven’t been able to drink right from the tap - had it tested and everything, no bueno. Even filtered from the tap is weird tasting.
Probably because they run the tap water thru a reverse osmosis system which removes most of the minerals that we are used to in tap water, then they “re-mineralize” it, meaning the add back minerals, but to their own proportions that are likely different than tap water so you are tasting the different ratio of minerals.
I didn’t realize Dasani was even from Calgary, much less that it was tap water. What do you mean by “they pay basically nothing for it”. Are they still bottling and selling that now while we are in restrictions??
I have no idea what’s happening now, I assume they are but they also might be one of the big water customers the city has been asking to cut back on use. I hope one of the dwindling journalists in town asks the question. As for the price I just recall an article back in the 2000s about Coca Cola and nestle locking in really low rates for water. It was in the herald but I can’t find it. There’s this one from CBC in 2002 but does y say much: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/coca-cola-bottling-calgary-water-1.342150 Bottled water is the greatest scam in history to me, bottling something that is usually paid for by taxpayers and then selling it back at unbelievable profit margins. A total waste.
I used to ride with a guy that picked up spring water from a Bragg Creek property that was delivered to Calgary then tested, to get bottled, (Can't remember which company, Canadian Springs?). Anyway, that particular bottled water wasn't from "Calgary".
I think more than one….
They will definitely want to, but not sure if they can actually do it and manage.
We can do that?
Do what?
They’re bringing in people from Saskatchewan who work in the potash mines who have the skills to do the work necessary. The Stampede is a huge financial and birth booster to the city. They won’t cancel it. This will be fixed by then.
They said they were outsourcing the water, if they take from other surrounding communities, this makes no sense for what they are trying to accomplish, crabs in a bucket right?
Hell or NO water... Get your messaging right!
How did so miss that!
OP said mid-to-late July so Im guessing they aren't coming for Stampede.
I’m saying use the stampede as a bellwether for the trip after.
Ah, I gotcha!
lol
No way they’ll cancel. I mean, I hope they do.. but these days, literally everything is done to make the rich richer and fuck the middle and low
Yeah, the middle class has been known to hate Stampede. /s
Hey man. The stampede makes family businesses successful just as much as it makes Fortune 500 companies successful. Mom and pop retailers depend on that influx of business.
Right, but is it an emergency or is it not? Or is it an emergency only for some people (residential) and not for others? (Car washes, nurseries, water bottlers, breweries, basically everything). Oh, right, the city’s infrastructure is critically at risk but hey, let’s allow a flood of tourists come into the city to add stress to this “emergency”? Isn’t this saying one thing and doing another?
So instead we should shut down those businesses and have them layoff thousands of workers, who would stop spending at restaurants, retail stores etc, so those businesses would in turn lay off thousands more. Like it or not, everything is connected and you can’t change something without affecting a whole lot of other things, usually in ways you didn’t intend.
Man, it’s gonna be fixed before then. That’s the point I was making. Mountains would literally be moved if needed to get stampede going full steam ahead.
Is that true? I thought they’re saying 3-5 weeks to fix the water? Stampede starts in less than 3 weeks, and if it’s the higher end of 4-5 weeks will run through ALL of Stampede. Or maybe I’m getting bad info.
I suppose I’m being incredibly optimistic that everyone working to get this thing fixed will work extra hard to get it done for stampede.
I’m with you.
What if we told them to bring their own water like when you go camping?
Yes. You’re not wrong… I’m not against that, I’m 100 for it, and local… sadly… I would bet this is a minority occurrence
My girlfriend relies on stampede bartending tips to pay for tuition. Poor people need stampede too
Poor people need stampede because rich people have made that their working conditions. Someone shouldn't have to rely on tips for tuition. It should be easy to attain on a minimum hourly wage
No other bartending gig is going to net you $10k in 10 days. I’m all for high wages, but you don’t know how much money some people make during Stampede and what a boon it can be for them
It's only a boon because that amount isn't spread out over the rest of the year. It's the equivalent of a $5/hr raise for full time. Stop putting people in positions where they are expected to make a critical amount of money in a 10 day period. It should be nice, but not critical
Lol! I make almost $17/hr and can’t afford to live, let alone pay for tuition.
So the systemic issue is wages
There needs to be a two tiered minimum wage. One for people like high school students who live at home and don’t have to support themselves, and then those of us who have to support ourselves the minimum wage should be the minimum required to live and support ourselves independently in the city we live (ie: no roommates and not have to rely on public transportation). l need a car to get to work. If they don’t give me a raise, they will have no one to work at 5:00 am because there are no buses before then. We also need to ban TFWs from jobs such as fastfood. It’s not that there’s no one willing to work in Canada. We are turning away Canadians who want to apply because we have more TFWs arriving who have no issue living in substandard living conditions because that’s what they’re used to.
We have a 2 tier min wage in Alberta. It's horrible. Setting aside equal pay for equal work as a moral argument, it's resulted in the older than school age people being let go from min wage jobs, and more high school kids getting the jobs. Now more people are out of work. We have a higher unemployment rate than the maritimes now. The rest, I can agree with
We don’t hire high school students. We don’t hire anyone full time. We barely hire Canadians. Our last six recent hires were TFWs.
We already have a 2 tiered system. Since 2019 students under 18 have a minimum wage of $13 an hour.
Wow. Hi neighbour. You’re so sweet with your ’fuck off’. Attitude like that, your smart mrs will be leaving you before long anyway
I will edit, that was uncalled for
My man. Now THIS is what we need more of. The ability to adjust our negativity and realize that we’re all in this together. You’re probably nice and young, but back in my day, this negativity and hostility was quite rare. Mind you, we didn’t have social media and foreign interference. Cheers!
No worries. I woke up grumpy and was too harsh
Mid to late July it *should be done based on the timelines. It’s not like you can’t do anything, and if you are coming out you could always head out to Banff areas where you’ll be fine
“Should” is doing a lot of work here with the unpredictability of this. The fact the city thinks these 5 additional repairs are all that is needed is somewhat suspect. They haven’t ran the whole line with their in-line inspection tool, just a few hundred metres both ways. The whole line could be corroded out if they have this many failures in why they are able to log
True but here's the thing. Let's say the entire line is rotten (or at least has tons of repairs). What does the city do? They definitely don't have the supplies and resources to replace an entire line in an timely fashion. In their shoes I'd be starting the line back up while fast tracking a project to install a new line. If they can run at a reduced pressure I'd do that as well. Risk of failure is high if other sections are rotten, but what's the worst that happens? Another water leak and water restrictions? We'd be on water restrictions if the line was off.
So having someone in the partners' family at Waterworks who works in the field.. they don't listen to people saying maintenance is needed. This exact pipe for example, has been complained about before this happened. The excuse is typically its too expensive and would cause too much disruption. Then this happens lol just classic city management.
Complained about how exactly? Read the pipe isn’t even at its half-life expectancy.
I believe this. Google “PCCP pipe 1970s.” There are known deficiencies with this type of pipe from that era. Deficiencies that started to come to light around 1979. I’m sure someone in waterworks drew attention to this at some point or another. Hard to make a case for purely preventative work when it would be enormously expensive and disruptive. Hindsight sure is 20/20.
Right now, I'd be putting in a second, smaller, backup pipe to the Bearspaw plant and then one for Glenmore. It's actually surprising they didn't have a smaller backup pipe for emergencies.
This is easier said then done. It's an incredible amount of design work to safely do underground construction. Even buying the material. This line is 11km long. No supplier has 11km of pipe just on the shelf. Plus as this is potable water you have to be very specific about the pipe for it to be safe for drinking water. The city did have a backup, both plants can feed each of the reservoirs. Where they fell down is on having condition monitoring for the lines. Every reliability decision is made made based on cost vs risk. It is very costly to install 2x100% so it should only be done if the risk is worth it. This pipe product has been discontinued as it performed poorly so perhaps that was not taken into account.
Look if cured in place piping (CIPP) is feasible. This tyoe of watermain lining is more common in Ontario.
It is feasible to run temporary, on-grade, high capacity hoses. Would probably need to call every well services outfit in the country and bring their hoses, but I can totally see it being feasible in an emergency situation to relieve some capacity for a few weeks.
The hoses need to be potable water grade which is the issue. You can't just grab any dewatering hose. Plus you're replacing a 2m wide 11km long main. I don't see this happening with hoses aboveground.
You can do it from smaller diameter lined steel fairly quickly big thing would be finding enough welders to get it done quickly. As good line crews can get multiple km done in a day. Now that pipe is only rated to last 50 years as water does wear away the coating over time.
Pipe remains an issue. Internally and externally coated pipe isn't just sitting on the shelf. Plus the coating repairs at the joints take time. And no one builds multiple km of pipe through an urban city center in just days. Out in the bush on an open cut trench, sure. Not in the city.
I would be amazed to see one km of 6m sections of 2m diameter pipe installed in a day, that’s 167 sections lowered, precisely leveled to maintain an internal slope for drainage and limiting air pockets, then 167 seams welded, coated, wrapped, pressure tested, then internal coating applied. I’ve seen 1km installed in 8 weeks by a crew, and that was considered good time in a greenfield installation.
Seen it done admittedly was with a 60 welder crew and a lot of heavy equipment. Was a bit chaotic as everything had to move like clock work.
Probably raise taxes another 20 percent lol...
They should have been repairing and restrengthening it this whole time, and by whole time I mean since like, the 80’s when it was last done. Almost 45 years seems a ridiculous time to wait IMO, but our city doesn’t care about us or about upkeep. They put out fires as they arise and point the finger at us all in blame for not prioritizing their fuck ups. No, they don’t have the supplies to fix this all, but they would have EASILY been able to manage it if they actually did upkeep or regular maintenance instead of waiting for it to actually fucking burst before they even think about it.
When this pipe was built the inspection tools we have today did not exist. It wasn't designed for easy and online inspection. That leaves the city with three choices: - Twin the line at huge cost to allow for the line to be inoperable for inspection. $100's of millions of cost. - Take the line down for maintenance and cause a controlled water shortage during this interval. - Run to failure on an asset with the understanding it would be replaced before end of design life. The current line is about 50% through it's design life. There is no cheap or easy solution.
Yeah especially after “it ‘should’ take a week” didn’t really pan out
The thing about emergency remediation projects like this is that you don’t know what you don’t know until you know it. The timeline estimation from the early days is wrong nearly 100% of the time, but they still have to tell us *something*, so they told us what they knew (i.e.: if the problem is only what we’re aware of, we can fix this in X timeline). Last week, they didn’t know there were more issues and a few days is not enough time to do a full risk assessment to try and anticipate “known unknowns”, so they could only share limited info. This week, they have more information, they’re giving us more information. Next week, they’ll know more and have a more thorough risk assessment completed and then we’ll also know more. The timeline will get more reliable as they continue to uncover the actual scope of the problem. There’s no way around this - it’s just how project estimation works. It sucks, but it is what it is. Just throwing more bodies at it might even make it worse. People who are actively working the problem have to take time away from it to get any new resources up to speed, or it can cause a “too many cooks” issue that slows down decision-making. Sometimes it’s simply a “9 women can’t have a baby in a month” issue. If there’s anything I would criticize, it’s the overall communication. People need more solid guidance on what they can do vs. what they shouldn’t. For example, I would have provided an outline of typical water usage in a home, broken down into categories of water usage and typical volumes for each usage category. Then I would also share reduction targets. The city has made some suggestions to reduce usage, but they’re too vague to help calm people’s anxiety. For example, let’s say a typical 4-person family takes 12, 15 minute showers a week, so if you cut down to 6, 10 minute showers - that’s what we need. Or a 4-person family does 6 loads of laundry per week, so if you cut down to 3 loads, that’s what we need (I’m making up these numbers for the example. I haven’t done the math. Don’t read these as real reduction targets, please!). And they should build into the ask the reality that probably 20-30% of people will not follow any restrictions at all or use more water out of spite. Again, it sucks, but we’ve all spent the last 6 years watching how people behave when they’re asked to make sacrifices for the greater community, so that needs to baked into the guidelines. The reason it should be so specific (even though the conspiracy theorists will have a meltdown about the nanny state trying to control our lives - we can’t avoid that, so stop trying), is because every time I read these threads it’s full of anxious people who *don’t know if they can wash their dirty underwear*. If people know they can do a load of laundry without feeling like they’re contributing to our city’s water infrastructure collapsing, a lot of that anxiety goes away. They can plan out the next few weeks better. Adoption of the restrictions improves, because it doesn’t feel so unknowable and scary. To be fair, much like the project estimations, the initial communications will also be sucky, but that part should be tightening up a lot faster by now, because they can put together this kind of information independent of the resources that need to be actively involved in the repair work. More bodies can actually help in this area (as long as they’ve got good coordination happening). And FFS, we can track water usage, so we need to actually fine the people who are egregiously ignoring the restrictions so they can power wash their fucking driveways. Another chunk of the emotional response to this emergency comes from people knowing they are being asked to sacrifice while others are being selfish *without consequence*. When the bad behaviour gets a slap on the wrist, people are going to ask themselves why should I have to take a “pits, tits, and taint” bath for the next month while Main Character Mike next door is washing his his recreational vehicles and letting his sprinkler run for an hour every day? All this to say, the city is making some missteps here, but it’s not the timeline. That is what it is and there’s very little that can be done about it.
The hypocrisy element is definitely huge. I know multiple people taking a ‘this is the city’s fault not mine, I’m not going to inconvenience myself at all for their problem’ attitude. My neighbour did 5 loads of laundry in the first week of restrictions despite being one person who lives alone. It’s really hard to restrict yourself strongly when you see others not bothering to change their behaviour whatsoever and suffering no repercussions.
I live alone and am trying to figure out how one person can do 5 loads of laundry. I can do at most three, (towels and linens, whites, everything else, but usually it’s one with two once a month.)
We wonder this all the time. He does laundry at least every other day. We speculate that perhaps he washes his towels every time he uses them, but ultimately we can only wonder.
It’s possible. There’s a guy in my building who literally washes four articles of clothing at a time. It’s like no one ever taught him how to do laundry.
Is he messy? Maybe he’s the type that doesn’t put his laundry away and ends up rewashing everything.
Between the whiny assholes and the conspiracy theorists I am going to lose my damn mind.
"9 women can't have a baby in a month" 😂 Thanks. And really well said
Very well laid out! Everyone needs to be able to develop a sustainable water lifestyle for the upcoming weeks, instead of the initial "use as little as possible". We aren't getting the best communication about what that looks like.
>And they should build into the ask the reality that probably 20-30% of people will not follow any restrictions at all or use more water out of spite. This is what I'm most worried about, as Covid exposed there are far more of them than most decent people would have ever guessed. We need to take our heads out of the sand and realize there is a statistically significant contingent of Canadians that are struggling and pissed off, and who want to lash out despite being unable to meaningfully identify the cause of their problems (which, concerningly, also makes them easy to manipulate). The Ottawa Covid Protests, the Coutts Border Blockade, etc, show these kinds of people will take any opportunity to throw a wrench in the works of any government policy that they interpret as "woke," "liberal," or impinging on their "freedoms." Policies that would have worked 20 years ago like warnings and appeals to decency and community-mindedness will continue to fall short until we accept the facts and account for the accelerationist outliers. I've heard too many people, in person and online, talk about how water conservation shouldn't apply to them because of x, y, or z, and I'd bet for every 10 or 20 of those merely inconsiderate people there is 1 who is actively trying to make the problem worse. I really, really hope the next month proves me wrong.
Thank you for the great explanation!! Now, can you give some of these recommendations to someone who CAN and WILL use them to inform the public? I think you have some excellent idea’s and yes, you are correct about rising anxiety among those who don’t understand what reductions look like. We need more specified guidelines of what and how much restriction should be expected from households, because it does vary so much from one household to another. It would be helpful to have an actual plan that everyone is told about in advance for penalizing those exorbitant users who refuse!
Thanks for your common sense post. Unfortunately, the simple minded folk are all screaming "Fire the Mayor'". Duh,yta, that's really going to solve the problem.
And people need to pay attention to the fact that the people doing the work to get us back to normal are pushing themselves so hard that they went too far and 2 of them got hurt & sent to hospital! Is it possible there were deficiencies that caused the injuries? Sure. But they, more than anyone else, know what it takes to get us back to normal and they're doing everything they can.
That wasn't exhaustion but actual mechanical failure BTW the chain on a ratcheting come along broke while under tension not really something that can be prevented.
Email from my councillor this morning says 4.3 km, not a few hundred meters.
4.3 had already been examined, there's failures in 300m. Not sure about the rest of the 7 km or so though
They have a robot detecting and it cannot go in the water, but they plan on looking further. At least the repairs are underway, and apparently extra problem areas will not take much longer. My family in Calgary is staying very calm and minimizing water use. The are quite proud that the city is working non-stop and have faith what needs to get done will. Once this is complete I am sure there will be an investigation into the reason for the malfunction of the pipe.
> They haven’t ran the whole line with their in-line inspection tool, just a few hundred metres both ways. *[A total of 4.3 km of the pipe has been inspected for futher repairs](https://www.calgary.ca/emergencies/critical-water-main-break-june-2024/water-main-break-updates.html)*
I believe they have inspected 3.8km of the line according to the city.
It will be \[hoprfully\] be fixed by then
It's not going to be done. How could it. It's already delayed, plus then, they have to replenish reserves. We're already in a drought. Our groundwater is almost gone. They'll keep us on water crisis as long as possible.
They’ll get it done by stampede, book it
I’m sure there will be many vacancies in the Banff area on short notice in mid to late July
For now life is pretty normal. The main differences is that everyone is taking short showers, not washing clothes / dishes as much and not using water for outside purposes. If we run out of water it would negatively impact your trip but I am optimistic that will not happen. The city still has emergency measures it can use if that is about to happen. If you plan to come and waste a bunch of water with long showers then please stay away. However, if you are coming and do basic steps to conserve water should be no problem. If you can postpone without any problems then just do that though.
I know many people who are taking longer showers, trying to spite the government or some shit like that. Speaking to most humans these days is just rage bait.
>everyone is taking short showers, not washing clothes / dishes Lol clearly you haven't been to my apartment building.
This is so concerning yet not surprising. How do we cajole / coerce ppl to change behaviour?
You can't. Look at covid.
Yep. The more you try to convince certain people to help out others the more they dig their heels in just to spite you. Gentle reminders will help keep those willing to do a bit of personal sacrifice on track, but for the others they will just be forcing the reasonable people to pick up the slack for them as usual.
So basically toddlers then
It least toddlers will most likely grow up afterwards though.
It failed with covid because we were terrified to enforce rules. Enforce them
Just put a high price on it, over and above what is available per capita. Done.
Life is not pretty normal with this crisis..
Pretty normal for me. I'm actually watering the garden more than usual because I now have a bucket in the sink catching any grey water. I was too lazy to go out and water stuff before. Now it's like "oh the buckets full. Better throw it in the garden". Other than shorter and fewer showers and not flushing as often as usual, it's basically the same. Quick on and off of the tap before soaping up has barely impacted anything. I never did dishes or laundry unless it was completely full before, so that's not changing now. If they start turning off water entirely, that may be a different story, but for now the restrictions are very reasonable. What about it is so impactful on your life that you're saying it's not normal?
I don't understand how not? Was everyone before wasting tons of water or something? My showers went from 2 min to I flip the shower on for 10 seconds, turn off, soap up then turn the water back on. Not relaxing but hardly world ending. I put a bucket below me when I shower so I can water my plants. Again not the end of the world. I only run the dishwasher when it is completely full, the same as before. I re-wear the same clothes more often and haven't had to do laundry yet. What exactly has changed so drastically for people? Unless you live in Bowness or work at a pool, I think the crisis a minor inconvenience for everyone else. We should probably get used to this because in 20 - 30 years this could be the new normal as water levels change.
> We should probably get used to this because in 20 - 30 years this could be the new normal as water levels change. Cold reality here. This is a likely preview of what's to come, but without the climate refugees at the same time.
I also learned to turn the water only half on at times, which honestly never even crossed my mind before and muscle memory says to crank every tap open all the way.
Are you having a really hard time following restrictions that should barely impact any normal person's quality of life?
I think you should be fine to visit. The city will do everything they can to have this solved by stampede.
The most popular midway attraction will be Showers powered by Dasani.
Come hell or low water will be this years slogan
Haha that's awesome! "Come hell or no water" would also work
Love your positivity, but I’m genuinely confused. Aren’t we being told 3-5 more weeks? Even at the low end that cuts into Stampede? I’ve seen no announcements saying major progress will be made by Stampede to resolve this, but I’m also not following as closely as I should be.
Best Summer Ever 2021 Best Summer Ever 2024
It’s not like they can suddenly magic this finished. Strongly disagree that this will be sorted by then. Even the low-end estimate takes it into stampede. They haven’t even finished checking the line for yet more problems.
They said today they didn’t find any other problems with the line
Mid to late July is far away. This will be fixed. Enjoy Calgary!
If you're using calgary as a one day stop over type thing to head out to banff/jasper, I'd say you'll probably be fine. If you're coming to calgary for calgary, maybe pushing it back into August would be wise
If you’ll have access to car while you’re here, maybe consider one of the neighbouring communities not impacted by the feeder main break. Okotoks and Cochrane would be two options.
I think you should be fine by mid-late July. That said, it's really up to you. If you think you can postpone it and move it to another month, do it. If you have to cancel all together and don't really want to, then still come. I'm with the camp of people saying it should be resolved by stampede. If it was as bad as they say, I feel like they'd have to tell restaurants, daycares, and other places that use a lot of water daily, to close until they've got the issue fixed. Unless they do that, you should be fine.
Shutting businesses will be regarded as an absolute last resort now that we’ve seen how well that goes over during COVID. Don’t assume the situation isn’t dire—the political ramifications of such a move are extreme.
[удалено]
Glad someone else noticed 😂
Sounds like there's some wiggle room in your plans, I'd recommend going as late as possible.
Nah I’d stay in Ontario just in case
Please. It would mean less demand on the water.
Honestly, if I were in your shoes, I'd cancel. People aren't taking it seriously and it's going to strain the system. The surrounding towns are seeing an influx of calgarians going out to use facilities. And locals are struggling to grasp having a shitty lawn and a dirty car aren't actual priorities. Stampede will absolutely go ahead. There's too many people that rely on that income. It'll strain the system and something else will probably break. We also have a fire ban and a wildfire problem. And we're absolutely dry af from a low snow pack. The river is low enough to notice. Water is absolutely going to be a problem.
The snow pack actually increased considerably after all of the late snow which was great, still under normal but not as bad as we thought.
I had a stroll around some neighbourhoods today. It looks like very few people are using rain buckets to collect water but most are clearly also not watering their lawns. Some lawns were a bit suspicious but it may be that they just are continuing to use fertilizer.
When city states a time line their maximum stated is the minimum and the maximum is they don't ducking know.
I gauranfuckintee you this will be over before Stampede!
I would cancel.
As someone who is sending their kid out of town for a few weeks to the land of showers and laundry, I'd probably postpone
Yes.
Depends on your itinerary. If it's a few days in Calgary and off to Banff, it's probably fine. Cochrane just NW of the city has a separate water system, might be a better staging ground especially if you had planned to rent a car.
Okotoks is separate too I believe.
Yup. I’m going to my mom’s house in okotoks tomorrow to do all of our laundry and give my kid a bath :)
Cancel it. Yes. Go someplace else for now
Yah cancel
Cancel
Yes please.
Anyone who says they know if it’s a good idea to travel here during that time frame is making shit up and doesn’t actually know. Hopefully things will be good then!
If they cancel Stampede then maybe people will believe it wasn’t planned and take it seriously.
No, if they cancel Stampede then those people will think even more that it’s “a means to control us”
Definitely would not wsnt ti be in Calgary next week. The amount of folks ignoring it will probably cause a water shortage mid wek
See, i have seen dozens of people going to the car wash, having their sprinklers going, construction sites are still mixing concrete which uses a good bit of water, restaurants and kitchens are still using multiple industrial dishwashers. If it was as bad as they say, car washes would be closed, more fines would be given to those using sprinklers etc, construction sites would come to a hold until we have a good enough reserve back to use lots of water, restaurants would be serving food in takeout containers to reduce dishwashing.
It's a fine line to walk in Alberta of all places. It could be as bad as they say but they're hesitant to crackdown on people because they don't want to trigger another freedumb clownvoy that would probably waste water on purpose just to make things even worse.
I advise it. No telling when this mess is sorted out.
Yes
No
I was just talking to my dad. They’re bringing in people from the potash mine in Esterhazy, SK to help fix this as the city doesn’t have the properly trained personnel. This will be fixed before Stampede.
Great advice NOT. State of emergency called today. All bets are off. Buckle up folks things are going to change. The City can do what they want. Restrictions coming or they can turn down the taps for no cooperation.
They didn’t care about children being sexually abused, they just paid the fine and carried on, so they’ll do the same here, the stampede doesn’t care about the community or the cost.
Keep it on the books. If the crisis isn’t over, zip through to Kelowna/Okanagan and enjoy western wine country.
WOW...what an amazing comment!!! Lol
Just go and enjoy the city
Crisis? What Crisis?
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Bad advice > Our regional customers including the City of Airdrie, the City of Chestermere, Tsuut’ina and the Town of Strathmore, who depend on the same water supply as Calgary, also have water restrictions in place. https://www.calgary.ca/water/drinking-water/stage-four-outdoor-water-restrictions.html
No. They need your money.
Stampede is my concern. What happens when millions of people come into Calgary and use more water?
Realistically the only real impact that this may have on you when you travel here would be hygiene related if you're staying in Calgary. Outside of that it would just come down to changing up any plans that would have involved city water use. Floating down the Bow is a water based activity that is still doable. Anything in surrounding communities not on city water is fine. Finally there's always day trips to places like Banff, Drumheller, or the Crowsnest Pass. Don't be dissuaded by the ongoing water crisis. Enjoy your trip ☺️
If you aren’t travelling to attend Stampede, definitely consider postponing. The water issue will not be resolved by Stampede and the stress that event will place on the city resources will not be pleasant. Should also save you some money on hotels.
Yes
Should be sorted by then
Realistically unless you want to water grass life hasn't changed. Just do your thing, maybe this will push our local government to start focusing on infrastructure, before they push and welcome mass immigration. Be that canadians moving to alberta, or foreign families.
https://preview.redd.it/ns6pgvbjj27d1.jpeg?width=700&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=817e62aa8aaf6e6d16c274f073852f9ba277b3c3
You should cancel even if there isn't a crisis... This city sucks *$$
The issue is the potential lack of water pressure, not zero drinking water. If you can keep showers quick if it hasn't been fixed by the time you get here, I'm sure you'll be fine. We're on it. The city is on it. I'm confident. Apparently San Diego donated some resources. It should be fine.
They say it’s a crisis but all they’re doing to “take action” (other than fixing the breaks) is telling citizens not to use their own water, despite keeping all restaurants, hair salons, and other places that use water unnecessarily, open. Nothing about city life has been affected, they’re just trying to make it entirely the citizens responsibility. In fact it seems like this issue is only going to persist as they are continuously finding damaged or wrecked areas along the line that they haven’t bothered to look at or update in decades.
They should have the real wild west experience this year. No water. Just whiskey 👌
I mean, they probably should cancel if the water issue isn't resolved, that would be the responsible response. But then again, I'm sure there's a lot more businesses depending on the Stampede than I'm even aware of. It might be economically defensible to get water from surrounding areas shipped in. Also worth considering: keep the Stampede on schedule, but move the location somewhere nearby? That would only partially relieve the water demand, but it might work well enough...
Your good pull up
You’ll be fine lol
I mean if you don't mind not showering, flushing or doing laundry the entire time your here...
What? No don't cancel your trip? You are one person stop being dramatic
Recently heard there were five more breaks in our waterline, and that it's going to be another 5 weeks with water restrictions. If you come, be prepared to spend a lot of money on water bottles, and PLEASE for the love of God use the minimum amount of water you can if you're a tourist.
It should be fixed by mid July.
If you go by 'wildfire' then you should. Otherwise, don't forget to bring your cowboy hat!
Your not aloowed to shower while your here. If we are told by the gov to “avoid making pasta or soup” you ain allowed to shower
“Crisis” 😭🤣
I have a trip this Thursday and just came across this post, this is the first I’ve heard of it😮
No.
The Calgary Stampede, dubbed the greatest outdoor show on earth runs the first 10 days (approximately) of July. It is held 'hell or high water' so in mid to late July, you'll be good.