SUNDRE – With temperatures in the coming days finally expected to rise, the town seems to have escaped the recent cold snap largely unscathed.
“We’ve had a couple of these in the last 15 years,” said Jim Hall, the municipality’s operations manager whose responsibilities include running the town-owned gas distribution system, referring to longer lasting spells of extreme cold.
“Typically, if we get a stretch of -30 (C), it’s not easy on equipment,” Hall told the Albertan last week during a phone interview.
“But when it hits these overnights and days over 35 (C) below – and today it’s -42 (C) this morning without wind – basically equipment shuts down; we don’t go out other than sanding streets.”
According to weather information posted on the Government of Canada's website, temperatures in Sundre – which are drawn from a monitoring station at Sundre's airport – have over the past couple of days fluctuated between highs of -26 C and lows of -42.2 C. The forecast is calling for sun on Dec. 24-25 with the thermometer expected to hit low, single digit positives on Christmas Day.
Amid a deep plunge into an unforgiving polar vortex, Hall said the town’s gas department must also stay frosty.
“Typically, we usually get one or two, maybe three meters that get a little bit of moisture in them, and they’re kind of a delicate device and they can freeze off so it causes issues. But we respond to those really quickly,” he said.
Perhaps the worst thing about the recent cold snap has been the timing leading up to Christmas, he said.
“A lot of people are sick,” he said. “We got to keep the staff healthy so that we can respond to emergencies.”
So far, those have been relatively few and far between.
“We had some freeze-ups for some customers on their end,” he said, referring to the cold weather earlier this month during Sundown in Sundre that in one instance caused problems with a commercial property’s water boiler.
But the municipality hasn’t yet experienced any serious issues. Fortunately, there to date have been no major problems with the town’s water and wastewater infrastructure resulting from the cold weather, he said.
“We experience pretty heavy frost depths, but knock on wood we don’t get a lot of issues with our mains in the colder temperatures,” he said.
“We’re blessed and cursed with that aggregate,” he said, referring to the makeup of the earth Sundre is situated on.
While the rocky, gravel-heavy earth can make excavations more challenging, it also allows some breathing room for pipes to expand and shift with the ground in Canada’s relentless freeze-thaw cycle.
In Calgary, for example, the ground is primarily composed of soil and clay that frost more easily travels through to potentially constrict underground services and cause problems, he said.
“Where I believe in Sundre, the pipe has a bit of room to move and as long as water is moving in the services and mains, they don’t freeze up,” he said.
However, while the municipality’s infrastructure tends to keep water, sewage and gas flowing, issues such as furnaces going out can arise on private properties.
“I know a customer a few years ago, they went away and somebody was checking their house but didn’t check the thermostat – the battery went out and they had no heat and froze up,” he said. “So, you got to be vigilant.”
With the holidays essentially here and many people planning to visit family and friends or perhaps even fly somewhere warm, Hall urges residents to make arrangements to have their homes monitored in their absence.
“My advice is just, if you go away – even if it’s just for a day – make sure you check everything when you leave. If you’re going to go overnight, have somebody just check on your house at night,” he said. “It goes a long ways to ensuring your furnace didn’t quit; that’s a terrible thing to come home to.”
That advice extends to anyone agreeing to check on somebody’s home that house-sitting involves more than just watering a few plants and tending to cat litter, he said.
And anyone who lives in a home with a fireplace who plans to have plenty of people over during the holidays should also be sure to have an up-to-date carbon monoxide detector, he added.
Furthermore, brutal cold snaps are not the best time to restrict the use of water.
“Make sure that you aren’t afraid to use some water during this time,” he said. “The more water you use, the more your drains keep moving.”
Hall also encouraged residents who experience after-hours issues with their furnace or who otherwise require assistance to call 403-638-7350.
“We may not be able to help out with your waterline or sewer, but at least we can be a first call to get you a plumber,” he said.
