City crews kept busy dealing with multiple watermain breaks

He said that mechanical equipment deteriorates over time, and an extreme change in weather pattern can speed up that deterioration, exposing any weaknesses of older equipment.

“It’s not always watermains. it can be fittings, it can be services, valves, hydrants, any of it. To fix any of that, you need to isolate the section of the water system, which results in service outages,” he noted.

The provision of a safe, clean and reliable drinking water supply is of utmost importance to the City, according to Campbell. To make up for lack of water services in some areas, crews deliver water tanks to people impacted and aim to repair the water supply within 24 hours.

“In some cases, we’re getting that right now but on average we seem to be taking about a day and a half. The reason for that is the sheer volume (of breaks). The crews have been putting in a lot of time and effort, staying late on regular working days as well as working on the weekends trying to make sure that everyone is getting the water supply back in a timely fashion.”

Campbell said overall, feedback from residents, local politicians and senior staff has been positive. However, there has been some negative feedback from upset residents.

“We fully understand (that). A lot of these failures are happening in new areas where people, I don’t think, have ever been exposed to a water outage before, so they’re a little bit uncertain on what to do but in general, people have been great and understanding,” he explained.

He said the situation has been a good learning experience and will help crews prepare for any future deep freeze conditions. In that regard, he said crews will look to see if they have the right equipment, the proper staff allotment, an efficient coordination of resource and if they’re managing watermains appropriately under the risk of situations like this going forward and if they need to change any of their technical engineering specifications.

Residents impacted by a loss of water services should receive a notice on their door.

“If you haven’t, it could be that your water service itself is frozen. We’ve experienced at least 100 calls of that nature, where your water service entering your property is frozen out on the street or in your basement typically,” Campbell said.

In addition to delivering the water tanks to areas impacted, Campbell said they’re offering swim passes so people can shower at a local facility or spend the day at the pool.

“If it’s (water service) frozen, what we would like you to do is call us, so we can dispatch a crew to your location and get that fixed up for you because that won’t go away for a long time unless there’s the direct intervention,” he explained.

Campbell said the 20 breaks they have seen over the past few weeks is certainly abnormal.

“Typically, I would expect, in current times, to have about 45 leaks of some sort in a year. This year, 20 failures over the course of a month…we are in abnormal territory. This is not something that’s happened to my knowledge, in at least three or four decades. “

He had high praise for City of Lethbridge crews.

“We follow best practices and engineering standards that are similar all across Alberta and what we’re experiencing is similar to all of our brothers and sisters in Medicine Hat, Calgary and other smaller municipalities,” he said.

“Extreme weather provides operational challenges but that’s why we have a highly talented, engaged and certified staff to mitigate that when it does happen.”

Any residents dealing with water service issues can contact the water department at the City of Lethbridge by calling 403-320-3850.

“If people are looking for information, we’re happy to provide it,” Campbell said.

“I would encourage anyone to call us if they’re having any sort of issue that’s not resolved.”

by Justin Goulet (@JustinGoulet21)

City crews kept busy dealing with multiple watermain breaks

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