Work to fix a critical water main break that triggered water restrictions across the city has been stalled after two workers suffered injuries on the work site Wednesday night, Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek said during her 8:30 a.m. update Thursday.
“Our hearts are heavy with the news of these injuries this morning,” Gondek said.
The workers, a city employee and a contractor, were taken to hospital after they suffered injuries at around 10 p.m. There are no details on their injuries, however neither is in critical condition.
Alberta Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) is working with the city to investigate, the mayor said. Work on the feeder main will not resume until later Thursday afternoon at the earliest.
In a statement, OHS said it is aware of the incident and is responding to the repair site.
“It is tragic whenever a worker is hurt on the job. Our goal is focused on having all workers return home safely after every workday,” the statement reads.
“As this is an active file, no further information will be provided.”
The Bearspaw south water main, which is 11 kilometres long and as wide as two metres in parts, suffered a break on June 5 that temporarily left hundreds of homes and businesses in the city’s northwest without water.
In an update on Wednesday — a week after the main failed — officials told Calgarians they can expect water restrictions to continue into the middle of next week.
The city did not say how long of a delay the work stoppage would cause.
Gondek said water consumption has crept up again, this time by nine million litres, taking the city far above the safe threshold.
“I now must ask you to do more on your water conservation to support those that are working to restore our safe water supply,” Gondek said Thursday.
Water supply is also lower than it has been over the past few days.
WATCH | Mayor Jyoti Gondek shares ‘difficult news’ on the water main break repairs:
“This morning, we are at a place where we don’t have enough of a cushion for emergencies,” Gondek said.
That includes water used in hospitals and for firefighting.
“I want you to think about a fire truck pulling up, facing a serious situation, they hook up to the hydrant and dribbles of water come out. This could be a reality if we don’t start conserving more water,” the mayor said.
Mandatory Stage 4 water restrictions that were implemented when the feeder main first broke are still in place and the city is still under a fire ban that extends to propane and gas fires.
On Wednesday, a new section for the feeder main pipe was lowered into place.
A boil water advisory for Bowness was lifted Monday but some residents in the community were left without water again on Tuesday because of a separate water main break at 85th Street and 46th Avenue N.W.
The city is still working to figure out exactly what went wrong and caused the main to break, but the priority now is to focus on fully restoring water service in the city, said David Duckworth, Calgary’s chief administrative officer.
“After every emergency, we conduct a thorough post-incident review to understand what happened and why,” he said.
Inspection work on the site can still continue and the city will have more information on that, as well as a safety investigation during its daily 2 p.m. update, Duckworth said.
CBC Calgary will stream that news conference live on YouTube and on its website at www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary.
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