Rocky View County cited for failing to enforce fire hydrant bylaw, safety codes
CBC
Some of Sharon Woynarski's neighbours describe her as relentless and tenacious.
She laughs at their suggestion that she's just like Erin Brockovich, the American consumer advocate who successfully sued a U.S. utility company over contaminated drinking water.
Woynarski is savouring a victory of her own. It doesn't involve drinking water, but instead the nine fire hydrants in her Springbank-area subdivision.
She raised concerns about the state of fire protection in her community last year after two of the nine hydrants were tagged out-of-service, including the one in front of her house.
Woynarski said the county, the fire chief and Westridge Utilities Inc., the private water company that owns the hydrants, wouldn't explain why they were put out of service or when they'd be fixed.
She filed a dozen access to information requests with the county and the province, as well as a complaint with Alberta's Safety Codes Council.
Within two months, the county issued an enforcement order against Westridge Utilities Inc. last summer, directing the company to comply with a municipal bylaw that requires owners to test and inspect their hydrants each year.
And the Safety Codes Council ruled in Woynarski's favour — with a scathing decision.
It said Rocky View County did not take sufficient measures to enforce compliance of the Safety Codes Act, something it's required to do as an accredited municipality.
"Given the importance of water supplies for firefighting emergencies and the full knowledge that the testing of these hydrants was regularly not performed, choosing to do nothing beyond having periodic conversations with WUI [Westridge Utilities Inc.] and failing to take enforcement action is not a reasonable use of discretion," the decision read.
"Historically, the county has not been upholding their obligations as an accredited municipality," it said.
“I was really happy to get that decision," Woynarski said from her kitchen in Swift Creek Estates.
The order requires the county to ensure full compliance with regulations under the Safety Codes Act, the National Fire Code-Alberta edition, and the National Fire Protection Association rules for all 1,100 fire hydrants in the county by the end of next year, extending well beyond the boundaries of Woynarski's subdivision.
The order also states that Rocky View “must implement enforcement measures to address any instance of non-compliance, including issuing orders, conducting audits, and pursuing legal remedies as necessary.”
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