Calgary water main: Calgary residents exceed their water consumption limits on Tuesday

Work is still underway around the clock to fix problems along Calgary's Bearspaw main water supply line. After continuously exceeding the water usage limit for several days, authorities have now moved the mark.

Unfortunately, the announcement of the new limit did not have much effect, as water consumption on Tuesday was 506 million litres – 1 million litres more than on Monday.

During a press conference, the city's director of infrastructure services announced that the water services team had found “new ways” to bring more water to Calgary residents.

“One of the lessons learned was our ability to reconfigure existing pumps to redirect water flow,” Michael Thompson said Tuesday.

With this new configuration, Thompson said, the city could reliably supply 485 million liters of water per day, and by “loading” the system, even up to 500 million liters.

The City of Calgary released updated water usage data on Sept. 4, along with more details on what the system can and cannot handle during the next three weeks of repairs. (Supplied)

At that maximum level, Thompson said, it would be difficult for the city to fill underground storage tanks and the pumps would not be able to be taken offline for maintenance.

“We challenge and strain the system to the limit.”

Any water use above this level means Calgary is “at greater risk of running out of water.”

Thompson says he knows Calgary residents could remain below this new limit for the next three weeks while repairs continue.

“We saw that Calgarians were reducing their consumption before we required these reductions. We were at over 600 million litres.

“We've seen that everyone is able to come together and reduce water use indoors and stop water use outdoors, and we ask that you continue to do so over the next three weeks.”

The City of Calgary will provide another update on water main repairs at 2:00 p.m. MT.