OPINION: Should auld infrastructure be forgot? Examining Calgary’s water system
Ryan Montgomery, Staff Writer
‘Twas the night before New Year’s Eve, and all through the city, lights were strung up, and boy, was it pretty. The people wished for beaches, they wished it were hotter, they didn’t wish for their cars to be 4 feet underwater. So why was a section of Sarcee Trail and 16 Avenue all cold, wet, and soaked? Because a water main in Bowness had for some reason broke.
The new mayor, Jeromy Farkas, was quick to the scene. The city has since issued boil-water advisories for communities such as Parkdale, Hillhurst, Montgomery, and Point McKay, and issued water conservation warnings within municipal boundaries. Echoing sentiments like, ‘don’t drink the water.’ It’s a bummer, especially since this happened last summer.
In not being permitted to drink, swim, or shower as usual, Calgarians are maddened. So let’s take a look back and see why this happened.
Ok, enough with the Night Before Christmas references, and let’s get to the meat and potatoes of the issue. Why have burst pipes become a recurring issue for Calgary? Ever since the rupture of the Bearspaw South feeder main in June 2024, leading to weeks of city-wide water cutbacks, residents have been thinking about their municipal water infrastructure much more than anyone ought to.
The political and policy aftermath of the breaks has not been publicised nearly as much as the breaks themselves. It’s hardly surprising because, frankly, it doesn’t make for a page-turner, as you’re no doubt about to realise as you read through this. But it’s important, so we’re going to look into it regardless.
After last year’s break, the city commissioned a review of its pipe infrastructure to determine the cause of the breaks. The review concluded that “microcracking,” high chloride levels in the soil, and damage to the pipe’s structural wires led to the rupture.
Pointing to chloride levels as the key culprit in the premature deterioration of the pipes, the report identified pouring salt on the roads to de-ice them in the winter months as the cause. The city says it will investigate the use of road de-icers in the future to prevent the issue—a rather unsatisfying conclusion, but hey, knowing is half the battle, as they say.
However, chemistry was not the only culprit. It had a despicable co-conspirator named political mismanagement. The report revealed that the city deferred or redirected recommended inspections in 2017, 2020, and 2022. I am of the opinion that critical water infrastructure shouldn’t be governed by the same philosophy as my check engine light: ‘it still runs, I’m sure it’s fine.’
These inspections were suspended due to their perceived “low likelihood of failure,” diverting resources to more pressing matters.
Another problem facing the city was the fairly archaic inspection and maintenance tools at the time. One favourite of the inspector was a highly precise, vastly technical instrument known as a hammer. They would take this marvel of human engineering and, like a particularly dexterous caveman, they’d bang on it. Sardonic journalistic jokes aside, this method was efficient at detecting cracks in the pipes themselves, but couldn’t detect breaks in the wires that held the pipes together.
Another hurdle to maintenance was that ever-fickle devil of public opinion. Conducting a comprehensive survey would require draining the pipe for an extended period. All the while, entire neighbourhoods would have to go without running water, which would undoubtedly make whichever schmuck is in charge at the time quite unpopular.
But why are we in this sad state of affairs? What about the way the pipes were built made them susceptible to rupture? To answer that, we need to go back to the era of disco, bell-bottoms, and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan: the 1970s.
During that decade, the city began building a new main water pipe to accommodate the massive population increase from the oil boom. The city had the choice between two pipes: the classical yet more expensive steel option and the cheaper, groovy new concrete option. I think it goes without saying that they chose concrete. What they did not know at the time was that the type of pipe they used was flawed, with a similar pipe bursting in Florida only a few years after the Calgary pipe was finished. But alas, the pipe was built, and when it burst, it would be some other chump’s problem. The flaw in the pipes, combined with the aforementioned villain, chloride, made Calgary particularly susceptible to pipe degradation.
And so, my fellow dehydrated Calgarians, what are the risks of this happening again? Are we forever doomed to live under the tyrannical shadow of a burst pipe and a tragically cut-short shower? The answer is, probably? At least for a bit. While the city is working to update the pipes, this issue plagues much of Calgary’s water infrastructure. Mayor Farkas pledged ‘possibly the largest infrastructure project in the city’s history.’
According to the report, of the 9.6 kilometres of pipe they inspected, 12.5 per cent was in some form of distress. The inspection also revealed a total of 239 deteriorated pipes, including the one which burst. However, the report emphasised that this was out of a total of 2000 pipe segments within the main that broke. So hey, 12 per cent ain’t the worst.
The report issued three recommendations to the city to prevent further breaks, including creating an independent water oversight board—God bless bureaucracy—a dedicated water utility with segmented financial statements, a business would have, and a general strengthening of the city’s risk management process. Whether these reforms will be instituted remains to be seen. But if there’s any time to do it, it would be now. As Chaucer’s old maxim goes, “strike while the iron is hot.”
