Wastewater leak into Bow River fully contained

Andrew Jeffrey · CBC News

· Posted: Mar 31, 2025 7:03 PM EDT | Last Updated: 1 hr ago

The wastewater leak into the Bow River, which Calgarians were notified astir connected Saturday, has been afloat contained, the metropolis said connected Monday.

Mayor Jyoti Gondek said crews are moving connected pumping sewage retired of the tube and uncovering the origin of the leak, earlier moving connected to repair and replacement work. Alberta Health Services and Alberta Environment and Protected Areas are assisting this work.

Since the leak was discovered successful the city's southeast connected Friday, Gondek noted that sampling tests are present showing h2o prime adjacent the tract has improved, and water flow to the Bonnybrook Wastewater Treatment Plant has returned to normal.

"These measures amusement the leak is afloat contained," Gondek said.

"This concern is an isolated incident. I've been advised that this is the archetypal clip Calgary has had a wastewater leak from a stream crossing utilizing this benignant of pipe."

The city's announcement comes aft it received testing results connected Friday from the Bow River adjacent the Bonnybrook works that indicated discarded had leaked into the river. After crews identified a leak from a sewage tube connected the river's eastbound slope crossed from the plant, the leaking pipe was found. Valves to it were closed and wastewater was diverted to different pipes.

When the nationalist was notified connected Saturday, Gondek said nary h2o advisories were needed, the hazard to the nationalist was debased and drinking h2o was inactive safe.

Doug Morgan, Calgary's wide manager of operational services, said he's assured the pipe's leak has been stopped.

Additional wastewater flowed backward through the tube and into the leak tract connected Saturday, helium noted, but crews anticipated and halted this flow. He added nary problems were recovered successful the 2 pipes h2o was diverted into. Water prime tests are inactive being done each 4 hours.

He added that while there's nary mode for his squad to cognize precisely however overmuch wastewater leaked into the river, they bash cognize the Bonnybrook plant, which typically receives 365 cardinal litres a day, received 7 cardinal litres little connected March 19. The complaint grew each day until a driblet of an estimated 52 cardinal litres was recorded connected some Thursday and Friday.

"Even connected what we believed to beryllium the astir terrible days, the travel astatine the leak tract would person been astir 1.3 per cent of the full travel successful the river," Morgan said, to enactment the leak successful context. "We besides cognize from modelling and different akin incidents successful different cities that the worldly would person diluted quickly, minimizing effects downstream."

Communication travel breakdown

After the Bearspaw South Feeder Main interruption past summer, which led to months of h2o restrictions, Gondek says the metropolis committed to improving connection to alert elder leadership, arsenic good arsenic the public, astir imaginable problems.

On Monday, Gondek said elder metropolis leadership should person been notified earlier astir the diminution successful h2o travel to the Bonnybrook plant, which was archetypal noticed connected March 19 — 9 days earlier the leak was discovered and the politician was alerted.

Gondek argues the hold meant the nationalist wasn't notified aboriginal enough, and much radical similar contractors and private-sector experts couldn't get progressive to assistance find the root of the occupation much quickly.

"If a reddish emblem had been raised sooner, we whitethorn person tested the h2o sooner and stopped the unsafe travel of discarded into the Bow River successful a much timely manner," Gondek said.

Call for nationalist absorption connected aging infrastructure

Through the city's effort to instrumentality a much proactive attack to the wellness of its pipes, Gondek said the city has begun inspecting aging pipes for imaginable aboriginal problems. It's each portion of a programme that volition instrumentality astir 3 years successful total.

"Calgary was connected the beforehand lines of learning what happens erstwhile you don't put decently successful monitoring and maintenance," Gondek said.

"For that reason, the fund that we passed astatine the extremity of November was an infrastructure budget. We invested successful technology, successful attraction arsenic good arsenic proactive readying for redundancies successful lawsuit of immoderate aboriginal emergencies."

Gondek advocated for a nationalist absorption connected aging infrastructure, which has been overlooked successful the past successful favour of much immediate, short-term investments. She noted it's a communal occupation successful cities crossed North America, and akin policies should beryllium applied astir the country.