Calgary's water supply is in a critical state — so why no emergency text alert yet?

Despite repeated warnings that Calgary could run out of treated water if current usage rates continue, Mayor Jeromy Farkas said the city has not yet reached the threshold for being able to issue an emergency text alert straight to people’s cell phones.

While the Alberta government issued an emergency alert on its website and apps Wednesday afternoon, an alert has not gone out directly to Calgarians’ phones — though it was pushed to those who have the Alberta Emergency Alert app downloaded to their phones. The same process was used to communicate the boil water advisory in impacted northwest communities on New Year’s Eve.

Asked Wednesday why a blanket emergency alert had yet occurred, Farkas said there are two types of alerts that can be issued – one through the province’s emergency alert app, and one through a geographically fenced SMS text thread.

The threshold for issuing an SMS text alert has not yet been met, he told reporters.

“My understanding is it requires an immediate life-saving issue where action could be taken in the next 30 minutes by an individual to save that life,” he said.

“Our understanding is, based on a very tight provincial legislation, it does not yet allow us to issue a text alert.”

Farkas said the city has been in communication with provincial officials since the Dec. 30 rupture of the feeder main, including Premier Danielle Smith and Minister of Public Safety Mike Ellis, to see if there’s any flexibility in the legislation that could allow for a text alert to be issued.

Postmedia has reached out to the province for comment.

Ten days after the 2024 rupture of the same Bearspaw south feeder main, the city declared a state of local emergency. However, that wasn’t done until after five additional points of weakness along the pipe — or “hot spots” — were identified, which resulted in prolonged repairs and water restrictions.

Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Farkas repeated pleas to reduce non-essential water use in any way possible.

“We’re very close to loss of life territory if current unsustainable water use continues, which is why we’re calling on Calgarians to continue to support our first responders by limiting showers to three minutes or less, delaying loads of laundry and dishes to only when they’re full and only flushing toilets when necessary,” Farkas said.

“We need to make sure when firefighters are responding to those emergencies that they have reliable water coming from those hydrants.”

The city recorded 511 million litres of water consumption on Tuesday and 507 million litres on Wednesday — more than 20 million litres in excess of the target of 485 million litres, which officials say is necessary to keep Calgary’s water supply from eventual depletion. That threshold has been surpassed every day since Saturday.

“We’re in a very dangerous situation where if current trends continue, we cannot guarantee the fire department has the amount of needed water to be able to respond to emergencies,” Farkas said.

Though daily water demand is lower in January than in the spring or summer, there are bigger challenges to replenishing Calgary’s water supply in the winter, according to Farkas. He noted that until the Bearspaw water line is back in service, the city has to rely more heavily on the smaller Glenmore treatment plant, which draws from the Glenmore Reservoir.

That drinking water source is reduced in the winter, due to lower flow rates in the Elbow River. Farkas compared the reservoir in wintertime to a “battery” that is charged during the summer and fall.

“Whatever the charge is going into the winter, that’s all we have to work with,” he said. “We have a very finite supply. It’s like a countdown of a clock. Once that clock hits zero, we’re out of water.”

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New measures in place at city facilities

Calgary Recreation sent an email to users Thursday morning notifying that steam rooms, hot tubs and kiddie pools are now closed, with water from those amenities now being used for deck cleaning.

Waves, slides and splash zones will operate only during “prime time” hours, which refer to late weekday hours and expanded daytime hours on weekends.

Aquatic centre staff are inspecting lines to identify and repair leaky faucets, showerheads, toilets and water fountains and switching from cloths to disposable paper towels to reduce laundry, the email states.

Staff at city-run arenas are doing the same, while also reducing the frequency of ice surface flooding and using “less water per flood wherever possible,” the email said.

While households account for two-thirds of Calgary’s water consumption, Farkas said the city is also communicating with businesses and industrial operations to find ways to curtail their use.

“The city is in constant contact with the largest customers on the industrial side as well to see how, at least in the short term, we can mitigate the issue,” he said.

The city will hold a news conference at 1 p.m. Thursday.

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