A water line break at a seniors property under construction loosed a torrent of chlorinated water Tuesday morning, most of which reached the Sturgeon River system.
In a news release, the city said Waiward Construction — a contractor — was working at the site of the Lions Village seniors’ housing project Tuesday when its workers broke a water main at the site. Located just off Bellerose Drive, the construction site is a mere 100 metres from the Sturgeon River.
“It sounds like a plate was dropped and hit the pipe and it broke,” said Guy Boston, general manager of planning and engineering.
The pipe was one of the city’s largest mains, a 12-inch line under a substantial amount of pressure, said environmental manager Leah Jackson. Although city staff quickly responded to the call and were able to locate and isolate the leak within 90 minutes, Jackson said in that time roughly 400,000 litres of chlorinated water escaped the line, most of it making its way towards the river.
“It mixed with the sediment and ran down a bit of the road there and went overland across the [Red Willow] trail and into the river,” Jackson said. “It was one of our larger drinking water lines.”
The city was able to repair the line within hours, Boston said, but businesses in the area were affected as water service was shut off until the evening.
Chlorine, which is added to potable water, is deleterious to aquatic life, Jackson said. Just how much treated water actually reached the river’s water is not known. Crews deployed large bags of dechlorination tablets around several catch basins in the area. The tablets cause a chemical reaction that reduces the chlorine in the water. Jackson also said the snow and grass would have also soaked up some of the chemical.
The bulk of the water spilled onto the ice on the river, which Jackson said would simply evaporate before the ice melts. But some treated water undoubtedly did reach the water of the river.
“I would have to say yes, some of it probably did make it into open water,” Jackson said.
The city has notified Environment Canada and Alberta Environment about the release. The contractor has seven days from the time of reporting the water release to put together a report outlining what it will do to clean up the spill and work with both regulators to get it finished. Jackson said crews have already started cleaning up much of the sediment, which is also hazardous to aquatic life.
“It’s unfortunate and public works and the contractor all responded appropriately,” Boston said. “We just ask all contractors take extra due care and diligence.”
