Essential-only water use in Cochrane as reservoir hits critical level

Cochrane residents are being asked to do more to conserve water until the consequences of the sewage leak at Riverfront Park are addressed.

At a news conference Tuesday afternoon, Mayor Jeff Genung said the Town was ramping up it’s call to citizens to restrict water use even more than what was called for earlier. He said the previous voluntary Level 3 request wasn’t enough, and that water levels for such things as emergency fire suppression were now at a critical state.

“That’s not working, to be quite frank. Yesterday we saw the single highest water use day in the month of October, and it was not related to the leak – it was people consuming water from the reservoirs,” he said.

“We’re 100 per cent focussed on fixing the leaks and then we’re obviously interested in how this happened in the first place.”

Residents are being asked to only shower when necessary and avoid non-essential things such as doing laundry. ‘Basic personal hygiene’ is the term they used to describe what was acceptable until the water levels were restored.

Fire Chief Shawn Polley said crews still hadn’t isolated the exact location of the leak, but reiterated drinking water was safe.

“Water quality is not our problem – water quantity is our problem,” Polley said.

“As a result of the water and wastewater incident on Saturday, October 21 and the uncontrolled impacts to the Town of Cochrane’s water reservoir supply, our water reservoirs are at critical levels,” Polley said.

“These levels directly impact our ability to provide water to the community and ensure the required water resources to support emergency fire suppression, if required. If water consumption continues at the current levels, we anticipate that some communities may soon be without water.” 

A State of Local Emergency (SOLE) declared Tuesday morning provides the Town of Cochrane with the power to direct and control response efforts, as well as coordinate with the province.

CAO Mike Derricott said it was still too early to start assigning blame for the accident.

“This is an unfortunate way to confirm how critical this infrastructure is for our community,” Derricott said.

He added that one of the things the SOLE allows them to do is instigate more direct and stringent business restrictions if and when such a drastic measure becomes necessary.

“The situation we’re really trying to avoid is shutting off water to areas of the community,” he said.

All Cochrane residents and businesses must adhere to an emergency mandatory water conservation.

A construction accident near Riverfront Park broke a water line and a sanitary sewer line on Oct. 21 around 6 pm, resulting in raw sewage being discharged directly into the Bow River. Cochrane’s drinking water was not impacted at any point. The intake for drinking water is upstream from where the spill occurred.

The Town activated the Emergency Coordination Centre at approximately 8:30 pm Saturday. That action included the City of Calgary, Rocky View County, Alberta Environment and Alberta Health Services.

On Monday Polley said a major hauling effort is underway to replenish the Town’s water supply until repairs can be completed. Water being hauled in from Harmony and Calgary.