Major Water Main Break in Bowness Area

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by GGG

It would trigger a hoarding response and likely increase consumption.

I think they have taken the wrong approach with the boil water threat. There are more intervening measures between where we are now and boil water. I think conversations about what escalation looks like would have been better then conserve or boil.

I think they also made a mistake in using 450 as the initial target. It was probably the conservative number but it being substantially lower then before begs questions.

Yeah. If you shut it off for a bit you'll have people filling up their bathtubs just in case. It'll be like the toilet paper all over again.

[btimbit]

Plus it'd just trigger freedumb morons setting up outside of city hall, running sprinklers just to prove they can

[Mazrim]

Originally Posted by curves2000

The city communication strategy lost a lot of people when they started coming up with a lot of rules of varying degrees on who can water and who can't on which days.

I always laugh when I see this excuse for not following restrictions. It's not hard at all. In the Okanagan, this has been the norm for years and everyone gets used to it. https://www.westkelownacity.ca/en/ou...gulations.aspx

Originally Posted by GGG

I think they have taken the wrong approach with the boil water threat. There are more intervening measures between where we are now and boil water. I think conversations about what escalation looks like would have been better then conserve or boil.

Where did they say there's measures between now and boil water? I've seen nothing about this. It's a very real concern at this time of year.

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by Mazrim

I always laugh when I see this excuse for not following restrictions. It's not hard at all. In the Okanagan, this has been the norm for years and everyone gets used to it. https://www.westkelownacity.ca/en/ou...gulations.aspx

####ing BC sheeple

Albertastrong!

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by Mazrim

Where did they say there's measures between now and boil water? I've seen nothing about this. It's a very real concern at this time of year.

I mean, I'd hope they'd go to indoor water restrictions before deciding we need to put non-potable into the system and go to boil water. This isn't the right time for "we've tried nothing and we're all out of ideas"

I'd rather have car washes/dasani bottled water plant/breweries/indoor pools shut down for a few weeks. I get that sucks for those businesses (and the city should compensate them) but it's better than a boil water advisory.

That would also make the situation seem more serious to the general public, and I think would likely result in additional compliance among residential users.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by bizaro86

Yeah. If you shut it off for a bit you'll have people filling up their bathtubs just in case. It'll be like the toilet paper all over again.

I've got a pump and a tub and I've been showering in Evian.

[MoneyGuy]

I’ve cut back my showers to every two days in solidarity with my Calgary friends. Stay strong.

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by Locke

I've got a pump and a tub and I've been showering in Evian.

You're not doing your part until you're putting imported sparkling water in your bidet. Very refreshing.

[Canadianman]

The city should deputize every citizen to hand out bylaw tickets for the next week. $3,000 tickets add up pretty quickly.



We would have the new arena and the Green Line paid for within hours.

[calgarygeologist]

Originally Posted by Canadianman

The city should deputize every citizen to hand out bylaw tickets for the next week. $3,000 tickets add up pretty quickly.



We would have the new arena and the Green Line paid for within hours.

I'll do it if they give me a 10% cut. I won't snitch on my neighbors but everyone on the adjacent and surrounding streets is fair game.

[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by Mazrim

I always laugh when I see this excuse for not following restrictions. It's not hard at all. In the Okanagan, this has been the norm for years and everyone gets used to it. https://www.westkelownacity.ca/en/ou...gulations.aspx

It isn’t even new to Calgary. This city has imposed even/odd address watering restrictions multiple times in the last 20 years.

[Mazrim]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

It isn’t even new to Calgary. This city has imposed even/odd address watering restrictions multiple times in the last 20 years.

I could have worded my post better, but basically the even/odd restrictions have been a common thing for years, while in Calgary they're a rarity (so far).

[GGG]

Originally Posted by Mazrim

I always laugh when I see this excuse for not following restrictions. It's not hard at all. In the Okanagan, this has been the norm for years and everyone gets used to it. https://www.westkelownacity.ca/en/ou...gulations.aspx

Where did they say there's measures between now and boil water? I've seen nothing about this. It's a very real concern at this time of year.

We haven’t shut down pools and gyms and all public showers. Business use hasn’t been curtailed as much. We aren’t trucking water out of bearspaw. There is no recommendation to work from home where possible.

The cause of the boil water order is a loss of water pressure in the system allowing ground water ingress to the system requesting in contamination. You simply don’t let the system get to that point and would many more interventions before we get there.

A months long boil water order would be an abject failure of management. We had a completely unplanned massive outage that they managed not to run out of water. Boil water orders weren’t even mentioned. An honest conversation about the levels of interventions would be nice.

For me cut indoor use so businesses like car washes can keep running is a much better reason than do it so some catostophic edge case doesn’t happen.

[Locke]

So the outdoor water-park themed Birthday Party that I had planned with all of the sprinklers and the slip 'n slide and all of the fountains and such...we should probably move that to the back yard?

[topfiverecords]

Originally Posted by Locke

So the outdoor water-park themed Birthday Party that I had planned with all of the sprinklers and the slip 'n slide and all of the fountains and such...we should probably move that to the back yard?

If you move it inside you’re not breaking any rules! Unless you’re a renter.

[Mazrim]

Originally Posted by GGG

We haven’t shut down pools and gyms and all public showers.

Don't know about this one, but I assume indoor pools recycle water. Maybe they did the math and figured out that this was okay?

Originally Posted by GGG

Business use hasn’t been curtailed as much.

You think they aren't having the exact same conversations with businesses that they did last time?

Originally Posted by GGG

We aren’t trucking water out of bearspaw.

That would be a literal drop in the bucket. Barely worth mentioning. How many potable water trucks are even available in the city?

Originally Posted by GGG

There is no recommendation to work from home where possible.

Agreed that this should be happening.

Originally Posted by GGG

A months long boil water order would be an abject failure of management. We had a completely unplanned massive outage that they managed not to run out of water. Boil water orders weren’t even mentioned. An honest conversation about the levels of interventions would be nice.

The previous shutdown happened when river levels were higher, so they could have flushed the system after the fixes. We're now into lower levels and it won't be going back up, so they won't be able to do that which is why they're talking about it this time.

Originally Posted by GGG

For me cut indoor use so businesses like car washes can keep running is a much better reason than do it so some catostophic edge case doesn’t happen.

How do you enforce indoor residential water usage? I think the best they can do is ask and that's about it.

[GGG]

Originally Posted by Mazrim

Don't know about this one, but I assume indoor pools recycle water. Maybe they did the math and figured out that this was okay?


You think they aren't having the exact same conversations with businesses that they did last time?


That would be a literal drop in the bucket. Barely worth mentioning. How many potable water trucks are even available in the city?


Agreed that this should be happening.


The previous shutdown happened when river levels were higher, so they could have flushed the system after the fixes. We're now into lower levels and it won't be going back up, so they won't be able to do that which is why they're talking about it this time.


How do you enforce indoor residential water usage? I think the best they can do is ask and that's about it.

. For smaller deficiencies you can make a meaningful difference. If you need to make 10 million liters that’s 10,000 m^3 at 40m^3 per truck that’s 250 trucks say 3 hrs per load is 30-35 trucks required. 10,000m^3/day of fluid hauling is not an unreasonable amount when you had 2 months to prep.

Remember the consequence is a 3 month boil water order. If the difference between 485 and 500 is as meaningful as they have made it out to be in the press conference then marginal cubes matter and trucking should be being done.

Essentially if the risk is as high as being presented then more should be being done.

To mitigate indoor water usage you shut off individual homes/groups in areas reaching critical states. You sacrifice parts of the city to preserve the overall system so that the flush requirements would be kept within feasible amounts.

I guess my general point would be the consequence of the outcome being discussed is inconsistent with the mitigations being discussed. Or the repair plan is wreckless. I believe the people doing this work are competent. The plan would not be hope and pray.

[timun]

Originally Posted by GGG

For smaller deficiencies you can make a meaningful difference. If you need to make 10 million liters that’s 10,000 m^3 at 40m^3 per truck that’s 250 trucks say 3 hrs per load is 30-35 trucks required. 10,000m^3/day of fluid hauling is not an unreasonable amount when you had 2 months to prep.

I agree with your overall premise, that if the situation really is as dire as the City messaging makes it out to be then a lot more should be done to deal with the "overage" on the total daily consumption.

That said, FYI, in my experience the biggest sanitary (i.e., for potable water or other food-grade stuff) tank trailers (towed by a semi, as opposed to being directly on the truck chassis) are typically only 22-27 m³. So we're not talking 30-35 trucks, we're talking 75+ trucks per day doing 24/7 top-ups to provide an extra 10,000 m³. That's... a lot.

[powderjunkie]

Originally Posted by Mazrim

The previous shutdown happened when river levels were higher, so they could have flushed the system after the fixes. We're now into lower levels and it won't be going back up, so they won't be able to do that which is why they're talking about it this time.

Don't they flush with potable water? Is flushing a different volume than normally goes through the pipe?

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by timun

I agree with your overall premise, that if the situation really is as dire as the City messaging makes it out to be then a lot more should be done to deal with the "overage" on the total daily consumption.

That said, FYI, in my experience the biggest sanitary (i.e., for potable water or other food-grade stuff) tank trailers (towed by a semi, as opposed to being directly on the truck chassis) are typically only 22-27 m³. So we're not talking 30-35 trucks, we're talking 75+ trucks per day doing 24/7 top-ups to provide an extra 10,000 m³. That's... a lot.

The one advantage trucks have is they should be able to put the water where they most need the pressure support. That would effectively increase the capacity of the system a little bit more as well.