WC147 MarApr 2026 - Magazine - Page 11
DRINKING WATER
The Zipper E昀昀ect
Better oversight of Calgary’s watermain system is needed to avoid future failures
BY WARREN FREY
City of Calgary
“Pipes don’t care who writes the paycheque.
At the end of the day, you have to go and 昀椀x it.”
XPERTS AGREE: Calgary’s multiple watermain
woes were inevitable.
Siegfried Kiefer led an independent panel who
examined the causes of the 2024 Bearspaw South
Feeder Main failure and gathered their conclusions
in a recent review recently released to the public.
Keifer said the review found not only was the
infrastructure itself prone to failure but that several
administrations did not address the vulnerability of the
system for a variety of reasons.
E
Failures in the Bearspaw Feeder Main in 2024 and 2025 had similar
causes and while e昀昀orts were made in 2024 to repair damage it
shifted the risk to other parts of the network.
Warren Frey is
Associate Editor of
Water Canada.
WAT E R C A N A D A . N E T
WATER C AN ADA • M ARCH/APRIL 2026
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