BOWDEN -- Town officials stand by a decision they made to let the water run after a couple of water main breaks occurred in Bowden.
In a report to council, acting chief administrative officer (CAO) Jacqui Molyneux said a water main break was reported at 7 a.m. April 14 to public works officials.
That was a Sunday. After some thought, the decision was made to allow the water to run until repairs could be made the next day.
On social media, some residents were highly critical of that decision.
However, Arno Glover, assistant to the CAO, defended it during an interview with the Albertan.
He noted that because the problem occurred on a Sunday it would be extremely costly to bring in contractors and equipment to fix the problem. But if they waited a day, those contractors and equipment would be more readily available more cheaply.
"You deal with people who just see water and complain about the wasting of water. But I costed this out and on balance, you know, it would cost more to do that repair on a weekend than it would be to leave it for one more day," he said.
"If you look at the total picture, the total picture is, you've got to get a contractor on a Sunday. That involves contractors' overtime rates.
"The biggest thing is if we need a component, where are we going to get a component from on a Sunday? We don't know what the nature of the break is, therefore, we don't know what item that we need to repair the break. We have limited amounts in stock in the town; we need to source a component, maybe. We just don't know," he added.
"The other thing you need to do is you need to get Alberta One-Call out to do utility searches. These things are easier to do mid-week than over a weekend."
Glover also pointed out that the water main breaks affected 15 properties. So he was faced with a choice between shutting off the water to those properties and trying to find some other way to get water to them, or simply letting the water run for a day.
He chose the latter, figuring that although some water ran down the street as a result, at least that way, residents still got water.
"My bigger challenge would be providing water to 15 properties. That would be hard work. I don't know how you would practically go about that when the simple decision is defer it for a day," Glover said.
As per protocol in these situations, Glover filled out an extensive report on the matter and submitted it to Alberta Environment. He noted as of last week, Alberta Environment officials have not expressed any concern about how either situation was dealt with.
During a meeting, town councillors indicated they weren't impressed by some of the comments made about the matter on social media.
Mayor Robb Stuart defended Glover's decision, saying he operated as per protocol.
"Unless you get it repaired immediately, you let the water run. And I think we saved quite a bit of money by getting Howell's (Howell’s Excavating Ltd.) in on a Monday rather than the Sunday," he said.
Coun. Sandy Gamble said some of the language on those social media posts was "disgusting." She was glad to hear the offending ones had been removed.
"A lot of (people were) complaining but none volunteered to help," Coun. Kerry Kelm said.
"If we'd shut the water off you would have heard a lot more," Coun. Wayne Milaney replied.
Late last month the area where the water main breaks occurred had not been paved.
Glover said it will be, later in the year.
"We let everything settle first, but then the way Bowden works is we get a contractor in when the temperatures are where they need to be and we do all our road patching in one go, and it's cost effective to do it that way," he said.
