The Town of Cochrane announced Thursday the water pipe leak at Riverfront Park has been fixed, the reservoirs were up to safer levels and the State of Local Emergency (SOLE) has been lifted.
Mayor Jeff Genung opened the daily news conference with a note of relief.
“I’m happy to report today we have some good news to share – perhaps it’s evident with the body language in the room or just the energy in the building today . . . the positive trends in our water reservoir levels, coupled with the successful isolation and control of the recent leak, as well as the unwavering commitment of our community towards conservation have provided us the data required to officially lift the State of Local Emergency,” he said.
Cochrane once again has enough water for vital fire suppression efforts – a critical milestone, which was always the key.
He went on to recognize the 24/7 commitment of Town staff and the contractor onsite, who have been working nonstop since the previous Saturday night.
“I’m just so proud of them. When people lean in together, this is the outcome.”
The director of the emergency coordination centre Shawn Polley provided details.
“Last night was a turning point in our effort, as crews successfully installed two crucial and critical water valves,” Polley said.
The valves allowed the repair team to isolate the pipe and control the leak.
Polley said the Town remains under a Level 3 water restriction, but “today is a marked improvement and we’ve turned a corner,” he said.
It will still take a few days to get the reservoirs back to normal levels.
Polley recounted the story of a woman who brought some baking into the Emergency Coordination Centre which she baked using water from melted snow.
“It means a lot,” he said, his voice breaking slightly.
CAO Mike Derricott said water quality had never been an issue – it was quantity.
The Emergency Command Centre remains active, and the Town has activated an Incident Call Centre, which residents can call at 403-851-7719, for anyone with questions.
As of 6 am Thursday water hauling had been discontinued as positive levels were being observed in reservoirs. The town encourages residents and businesses to continue conserving water and avoid peak hours when running dishwashers or doing laundry.
The partial road closure of Gleneagles Drive East from Hwy 1A has been lifted.
In addition to the essential use of water to maintain personal health and hygiene, residents can take quick showers, complete an emergency load of laundry, or wash dishes as a result of the improving water reservoir levels.
Late Wednesday night water was restored to local hotels and the GM dealership, ensuring uninterrupted operations for these local businesses.
Genung said people pointing to the incident as an example of one of the outcomes of extreme growth were wrong.
“We could have had a million reservoirs around our community and this situation would have had the same outcome,” he said.
He pointed out the irony that the project that precipitated the accident was undertaken to ensure these types of situations could be avoided.
“We were planning for redundancy, we were planning for future capacity, a situation just like this. It was just really bad timing and luck for the community,” he said.
For more information and further updates visit Cochrane.ca.
