On Wednesday, the City of Calgary made an announcement about making an exception to the stage three outdoor water restrictions, yesterday, Airdrie followed suit.

At their afternoon water update, The City of Calgary announced due to the current heat and with more temperatures on the way, they made an exception under the stage three outdoor water restrictions to now allow all outdoor pools, including private residential backyards and kiddie pools, as well as non-residential outdoor pools. Airdrie made the same exception.

"Under our Level 3 Water Restrictions, the City of Airdrie allows for the filling of recreational water bodies, including hot tubs swimming and wading pools with the issuance of a Water Use Exception Permit. Given the prevailing weather conditions and to align our requirements with those of the City of Calgary and regional partners, we have decided to waive this requirement until further notice," stated the city.

Here is what else is allowed during the current level of restrictions according to the City of Airdrie: 

  • The watering of plants, gardens, trees and shrubs using a handheld container, though the use of outdoor sprinklers remains restricted.
  • The watering of new grass planting (sod or seed) and bulk water sales for the purposes of construction, including grading, compaction and dust control is allowed, subject to the issuance of a Water Use Exception Permit by the City.

The Chinook Winds Spray Park opened up over the weekend when the restrictions were downgraded as well.

"The overall water usage is minimal due to its recirculation system and it provides a reprieve for residents on warm days, allowing them to play and cool off, especially since outdoor sprinklers are still restricted," stated the city.

The facility uses around 450 cubic meters of water annually. Parks staff will carefully monitor water usage to ensure minimal impact on our water distribution systems. to see the hours of the spray park, click HERE.

The City of Calgary is still slowly increasing the water pressure of the impacted pipe, next step is to eventually move to stage two water restrictions. 

Through their monitoring earlier this week, they detected two wire snaps within the water main feeder pipe, and yesterday they detected a third. These occurred in three different places.

"These snaps do not mean another break is imminent. The wire coils around each 16-foot segment of pipe approximately 350 times, and the snaps were spread across three locations along the feeder main. The hot spots that were repaired had approximately 50 snapped wires in a single segment of pipe," stated the City of Calgary.

They do show that the pipe is under some stress under the current flow rates. To comfortably move to the next stage, they (the City of Calgary) will need to increase the flow of water into the pipe, but we are moving very cautiously because they do not want to risk another significant break that could set back our progress.

"Currently we are completing some maintenance work at the Bearspaw Water Treatment Plant. We will continue monitoring and stabilizing through the weekend, and then begin to increase pressure to the pipe again next week. If we determine that the pipe can handle the increased pressure, it will allow us to look at moving to Stage 2 Outdoor Water Restrictions."

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