CANMORE – The cause of the boil water advisory is still being investigated as the majority of Canmore has returned to regular water services.
Spokespeople for the Town of Canmore and EPCOR said they’re continuing to look at the cause, but the disruption in service was first detected when a new water line was being installed as part of the South Bow Loop capital project in the southeast of town.
“It's still under investigation. Our focus and priority in the last few days has really been public health protection and ensuring the quality of the water in the Canmore system,” Steve Craik, the director of quality assurance and environment for EPCOR, said.
“We isolated the pipe quickly on Thursday afternoon (July 29) and really focused on flushing and moving water that might have got into the system from that pipe and moving it out through the Canmore system and testing the water to make sure it is safe. Our priority is the safety of the drinking water for our customers.”
Craik said water quality issues were initially reported Thursday afternoon (July 29). Areas of Canmore such as Elevation Place, Cougar Creek, Kananaskis Way and Grizzly Crescent began bringing forward quality concerns.
He added EPCOR isolated the new water line and notified Alberta Health Services and Alberta Environmental and Public Health, with AHS issuing the boil water advisory after high levels of turbidity were detected in the Town’s water supply.
The boil water advisory is the first Canmore has faced since the 2013 flood, the Town confirmed.
High turbidity – when water becomes cloudy or hazy from a large number of individual particles – can be caused from a range of reasons from mud, wood ashes and melting glaciers, but the cause is dependant on water test results.
Mobile potable water trucks were sent to the Canmore Recreation Centre, Elizabeth Rummel School, WorldMark – later moved to Lawrence Grassi Middle School – and Elevation Place between 9 a.m. and 8 p.m.
Residents and visitors quickly emptied bottled water on shelves throughout the town.
“It’s a changing situation. … We have opened some areas and we have been progressing through the town in different areas,” Craik said. “Eventually everything will be opened up and the boiled water will be lifted in the other areas.”
The Town opened their emergency coordination centre on Friday morning, began meeting twice a day and started assigning employees to different roles, Sally Caudill, Canmore’s general manager of municipal services, said.
“You have a plan, but a plan is usually fairly generic and there's always the nuance and the specifics of a circumstance that you have to adapt to. … We used our emergency management planning, we got it up and organized,” she said.
Caudill also noted the way the community has responded in helping one another has been helpful.
"It's certainly been an inconvenience for many, but I'm always impressed at the community's response to supporting one another and making sure that folks who are vulnerable or maybe have accessibility issues are getting what they need. I'm really grateful that even as we're a growing community and on a busy tourism weekend that people are still taking care of each other. It’s so inspiring.”
Craik said additional EPCOR crews arrived from Edmonton on Friday morning to begin assisting Canmore workers, with an average of three crews of four to six workers on site at all times. An EPCOR spokesperson said the company has 20 workers in Canmore dedicated to flushing the system and working on rotating shifts 24 hours each day.
Compounding the issue was the need to flush the system in a specific order since they are interconnected and need to be flushed in the correct direction. When an area is finished being flushed, AHS tests the results, which could take up to 24 hours before a boil water advisory could be safely lifted.
The August long weekend also added difficulties with extra traffic allowing for the busy Bow Valley Trail area to only be conducted overnight to allow for safer working conditions for crews.
Some businesses, already hard suffering from the COVID-19 pandemic, were also forced to temporarily close during the weekend due to low water pressure or none at all as some lines were flushed.
The Town and EPCOR are recommending residents flush all water fixtures for five minutes once the advisory has been lifted and put clean water into the toilet tank before flushing. Additional recommendations can be found on websites for both organizations.
The ongoing work for the South Bow Loop capital project is part of the Town’s utility master plan. The first phase, which is completed, installed about 400 metres of piping from the Three Sisters Parkway to the Bow River to connect with existing pipe under the river and connect with the wastewater treatment plant.
The second phase, which is where the water issues developed, would give the Town a third connection and have the second pump house supply water to the Benchlands Reservoir, according the Town’s website.
The project – which will connect the Three Sisters area to Bow Valley Trail and under the Bow River – will improve the flow of water, address pressure issues and provide better water flow for fire crews, Craik said.
He noted there’s no timeline to complete the investigation due to the uniqueness of each situation and work will continue to flush the Town’s water system.
“It is difficult to answer because these are unusual events. Fortunately they're they're pretty rare events,” Craik said. “As part of our own internal incident management process, we will be conducting a thorough investigation into what happened when we turned that pipe on. Right now, we’re still focusing on the flushing of the system in Canmore to ensure the safety of the drinking water.”
For more information and recommendations, people can visit epcor.com or https://bit.ly/Canmorewateradvisory.
