Calgary to act on recommendations from panel report on 2024 water main break

City council has voted to move forward with recommendations presented in an independent panel's review of the 2024 failure of the city's key water feeder main after Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas urged council to spare no expense to make the changes.

Council debated late into the evening Wednesday, voting unanimously to start working on the recommendations.

The report, released Wednesday, says crucial action is needed to solve deep and systemic challenges tied to Calgary's water infrastructure that trace back decades.

It found that the risk of the pipe's failure was first identified in 2004, the report says, after another feeder main in northeast Calgary ruptured.

But over the ensuing two decades, the city repeatedly deferred feeder main inspection, monitoring and risk mitigation, the review states.

While the Bearspaw feeder main was repeatedly seen as a high-consequence risk, the perceived low likelihood of its failure often led resources to be directed to other areas, the report says.

The panel's review lays out several recommendations, including to accelerate work to twin the Bearspaw feeder main by early next year, repair and maintain the current pipe, and establish a dedicated water utility department, supported by a board of independent experts.

Wednesday's report stressed the urgency of its recommendations, as the pipe is highly vulnerable to future catastrophic failures.

“The panel has traced these gaps to external pressures, risk and asset integrity processes, ineffective management, and a lack of effective governance oversight,” the report reads.

This report was completed before the Bearspaw line broke again on Dec. 30, triggering a new round of city-wide water use reductions.

Farkas said on Wednesday he's urging the rest of city council to begin work to enact all of the panel’s recommendations.

“We cannot cherry-pick. We cannot choose," Farkas said. "This work has been done for us. The roadmap, the path ahead has been set out. It’s up to council, we are duty-bound now to execute.”

“I am pushing for sparing no expense to get this replacement line done.”

Asked whether administration or past councils are responsible for the city's recent water main breaks, Farkas said the report doesn't point to any one smoking gun. He noted that it instead attributes the problem to successive decisions throughout more than two decades.