(City of Calgary)

By Dayne Patterson, The Canadian Press

Municipal Infrastructure

Report cites past problems, warning signals surrounding troubled Calgary water main

Jan 7, 2026 | 12:31 PM

A new report says Calgary’s catastrophic water main rupture in 2024 was largely the result of two decades of underinvestment and insufficient knowledge of the risks involved.

The report, released today, is the result of months of work by an independent panel tasked with studying what went wrong leading up to the Bearspaw South Feeder Main rupture.

The panel traced the risk of disaster back to 2004 when another Calgary water main burst, raising concerns for other parts of the city’s water system built with the same type of pipe.

But in the years that followed, projects to assess and monitor areas of concern were put off in favour of other initiatives.

The panel’s chair, Siegfried Kiefer, says he doesn’t think the blame should be placed on any individual or past city councils.

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He says the deferral of inspections and other maintenance projects meant city staff and council were never fully informed of what their decisions could lead to.

The water main in question provides treated drinking water to 60 per cent of Calgary’s residents and the breakdown led to months of water restrictions.

The issue has become critical again as the line ruptured a second time on Dec. 30, forcing a renewed round of restrictions.

Residents are being asked to take shorter showers and reduce toilet flushes and loads of laundry and dirty dishes.

The line is expected to be fixed early next week, but Mayor Jeromy Farkas says that is not the end of it and that more interruptions can be expected until the line is replaced.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 7, 2026.