Major Water Main Break in Bowness Area

[fotze2]

Originally Posted by bizaro86

If you never use your valves eventually they'll probably seize. I actually think using them a couple times per year makes the valve less likely to fail.

I close mine about 5x per year (any time I'm gone more than 3-4 days).

We have to service valves at least yearly so I guess in a stagnate water home with scaley water. You would also think we would have double valves for redundancy and an ESD and pressco, haha.

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by Titan2

* We’re slowly refilling the feeder main which will take several days as it is seven kilometres of pipe. This water is coming from the Bearspaw Plant and Bow River, not the Glenmore Reservoir, so it doesn’t affect daily usage targets.

Wait, we are refilling it from the Bow river? How can that be potable? I don't understand.

Also, once it is fixed, can they run it at say 75% to reduce the pressure on the pipe but still provide sufficient water? Does it work that way?

It's funny to me that people are accepting both of these statements:

"The NW isn't an island and water used there affects our ability to pass water to the rest of the city"

and

"The water we're using to refill this pipe is coming from Bearspaw and doesn't affect our targets"

The part of the NW upstream of the break is clearly islanded. I suppose I get why they tell the first lie, because people are mostly too dumb for nuance (eg it isn't the entire NW that's islanded). And maybe also for solidarity. There would be some people who'd be like "if Tuscany doesn't have to conserve that means there's enough water for me" when of course we have lots of water we just have no way to get it out of the islanded part of the NW.

[mrkajz44]

City website says they have completed the "fill pipe" step and now are onto the "test water" phase. That seems like good news that there was no other failure when refilling the pipe, right?

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by fotze2

We have to service valves at least yearly so I guess in a stagnate water home with scaley water. You would also think we would have double valves for redundancy and an ESD and pressco, haha.

You don't have a double block and bleed installed at your house?

[calgarygeologist]

Originally Posted by powderjunkie

I've been pretty skeptical/critical of her, but I've really come around on Wyness

Wyness was just on CBC's EyeOpener and made a claim that what is being dealt with in terms of overarching policy regarding the water main break is trillions of dollars of infrastructure. She quickly got shutdown by the host for throwing around some sort of nonsensical trillion dollar number.

[Bigtime]

Anyone that has followed council over the last few terms would not describe Wyness as being on the ball at all. Sometimes just flat our weird behaviour.

[#-3]

Yeah, I participated in voting her in the first time, when we were getting rid of crooked joe, but after reviewing here all over the place voting record, this year I quote for the Calgary community something or other pink party. (Brian Thiesssens cousilour candidate.)

[powderjunkie]

I'm going to zag here and say that Wyness is being eminently reasonable here. And I really disliked her in her first term

The trillions comment was dumb but she got interrupted before she could finish her point so it's hard to say how dumb (maybe just poorly phrased hyperbole). She's just not a very good speaker, but IMO she raises some very good points

https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio...eport-calgarys

It's definitely unusual that this panel has done a media blitz. I'm not sure if I actually have a problem with that or not, but it smells off to me and there is way too much grandstanding + politicking happening during an event we knew was highly likely and unavoidable (barring a time machine that takes us back at least 5 years).

[IliketoPuck]

Originally Posted by mrkajz44

City website says they have completed the "fill pipe" step and now are onto the "test water" phase. That seems like good news that there was no other failure when refilling the pipe, right?

This phase is actually the tell. Pressure testing the line will determine if there are other areas that are damaged and need replacing as well.

[Torture]

Wyness was also posting on X that the panel wants to privatize water. Like what, no, that wasn't the recommendation at all. They said they recommend a publicly owned but a separate entity so that there's clear accountability. That's not privatizing.

I agree that it's a bit odd that we're focused heavily on THIS report and not the other ones when they should all be taken in full. But it's not like the city is immediately putting water in a separate entity.

She pretty clearly misrepresents the report multiple times in the Eyeopener segment. She's not necessarily wrong about the timing, that the city/council have already taken some actions, and that the focus should be getting it right, not ramming through recommendations or a witch hunt to find who to fire.

[Titan2]

Originally Posted by Calgary Highlander

We had the Moen Flow Shutoff installed for this situation. It also reduced our monthly insurance premium --> https://shop.moen.com/pages/flo-smar...NpJHvBiYgmbw8k

$675? Holy ####. Plus installation and $30 a month monitoring. Wow!!

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by Titan2

$675? Holy ####. Plus installation and $30 a month monitoring. Wow!!

One of those cases where paying for insurance is a lot cheaper than paying for prevention.

[Titan2]

Originally Posted by Nancy

Just suffered through the second dishwasher leak of my lifetime. These are nefarious because you don't know there is a leak until the hardwood starts buckling.

I am going to try the following:

https://www.amazon.ca/Detector-Dripp.../dp/B0CHZ83LQD

https://www.amazon.ca/Camco-20-5-Inc...dp/B09BBMN93G/

We also had a pinhole leak in our copper PEX manifold spraying out water while I was on vacation, but luckily my son was home and eventually discovered it. I am curious if one of those home shutoffs would have helped in this situation?

Those are a good idea. I got the pan after our dishwasher leaked. Not sure why insurance companies don't give those to people. The sensors and the pan. I bought some of the water detectors that make a noise when they get wet. Work decent but annoying as hell when they go off.

[Fuzz]

My basement ceiling is exposed under my dishwasher, so it's easy to catch it making basement rain. If I had a floor drain there, it might not even be worth fixing.

[Titan2]

Originally Posted by bizaro86

It's funny to me that people are accepting both of these statements:

"The NW isn't an island and water used there affects our ability to pass water to the rest of the city"

and

"The water we're using to refill this pipe is coming from Bearspaw and doesn't affect our targets"

The part of the NW upstream of the break is clearly islanded. I suppose I get why they tell the first lie, because people are mostly too dumb for nuance (eg it isn't the entire NW that's islanded). And maybe also for solidarity. There would be some people who'd be like "if Tuscany doesn't have to conserve that means there's enough water for me" when of course we have lots of water we just have no way to get it out of the islanded part of the NW.

As I was asking a question I assume you are not questioning my in telligence. So they are filling the pipe with water directly from the Bow River? That seems really bad, does it not? Don't know, or care to be honest, about the NW being islanded.

[Titan2]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

One of those cases where paying for insurance is a lot cheaper than paying for prevention.

Sure. I understand that, and when I replace my water heaters I will probably install this or something similar. However, it seems like the price is wildly out of scope of what is essentially a valve attached to a solenoid or something.

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by Titan2

As I was asking a question I assume you are not questioning my in telligence. So they are filling the pipe with water directly from the Bow River? That seems really bad, does it not? Don't know, or care to be honest, about the NW being islanded.

Not questioning you at all - I just quoted your post for context so it was more clear what I was talking about - just trying to avoid a "Grandpa Simpson yells at cloud" moment.

They're filling the pipe with water from Bearspaw treatment plant (which comes from the Bow River). The statement was a bit vague, I think because they're trying to not make it obvious their previous answers to NW Islanding questions were less than forthright.

They definitely arent filling it with untreated river water.

[Titan2]

Originally Posted by bizaro86

Not questioning you at all - I just quoted your post for context so it was more clear what I was talking about - just trying to avoid a "Grandpa Simpson yells at cloud" moment.

They're filling the pipe with water from Bearspaw treatment plant (which comes from the Bow River). The statement was a bit vague, I think because they're trying to not make it obvious their previous answers to NW Islanding questions were less than forthright.

They definitely arent filling it with untreated river water.

Thanks. The way they worded it is confusing then. And weird.

[powderjunkie]

Originally Posted by bizaro86

their previous answers to NW Islanding questions were less than forthright.

I think it's pretty evident at this point that society cannot in fact handle the full truth. But it would be really interesting to k now consumption stats across the city.

[Regorium]

Originally Posted by bizaro86

Not questioning you at all - I just quoted your post for context so it was more clear what I was talking about - just trying to avoid a "Grandpa Simpson yells at cloud" moment.

They're filling the pipe with water from Bearspaw treatment plant (which comes from the Bow River). The statement was a bit vague, I think because they're trying to not make it obvious their previous answers to NW Islanding questions were less than forthright.

They definitely arent filling it with untreated river water.

Anyone with a bit of knowledge would know that the NW didn't affect anything anbut it was also extremely clear they could not tell a few communities that they could do whatever and the rest cannot regardless of technical reasons.

Especially if it was during the summer where you would have lush green lawns to make the difference more stark.