What the city learned from Calgary's feeder main break — and how it's moving forward

Nearly a year after Calgary's largest water feeder main ruptured, the city has compiled a list of what it did right in its response and what needs to be improved in the event of another large emergency.

The report on lessons learned, which gives an overview of the city's response to the catastrophic Bearspaw south feeder main break, was presented to city council Tuesday.

When the water main broke on June 5, it prompted a local state of emergency, jeopardized the city's potable water supply and led to various levels of water restrictions for Calgary and surrounding communities for months afterward.

The city's newly released report says the crisis "threatened the life of Calgarians, critical customers (like hospitals) and neighbouring communities."

City administration produced the report after it conducted surveys and spoke with those who staffed two city-run agencies: the emergency operations centre and the water tactical operations centre.

The city calls the incident "one of the most significant and complex critical infrastructure emergency events" it has ever experienced, which took a toll on the more than 700 city staff who were called on to help.

The flexibility and competency of staff members who worked long shifts to keep operations running 24/7 — especially at the water tactical operations centre — is touted as one of the city's nine strengths identified in the report.

However, the pipe failure required "highly specialized expertise" in some positions, forcing the city to rely on a small number of staff during the emergency.

Sue Henry, chief of the Calgary Emergency Management Agency (CEMA), told council that addressing staff burnout during emergencies is still a work in progress.

"We went directly from the Bearspaw feeder main into supporting residents of Jasper," she said, referring to evacuees from the wildfire that hit the town in late July. "So, I would love to tell you that our staff are well rested and are recovered. That just isn't the case. And that's part of the work that we need to do."

The report said the city should hire more staff with expertise, and create a plan for when additional staff are needed to address a crisis.

Coun. Jennifer Wyness echoed the report's recommendations during Tuesday's presentation to council.

"In my head, I don't see a space for you to collect your breath, and that gives me pause and concern," said the Ward 2 representative.

Better clarity around roles and responsibilities is also needed, said the report.

Ward 1 Coun. Sonya Sharp addressed the ambiguity of city council's role during emergencies such as the feeder main break by comparing it to the global pandemic.

"When we went through COVID, it was a reversal between council and administration. Administration took over and council supported, and they did what they needed to do just to make sure messaging was out.… We followed your lead," Sharp said.

In response to the Ward 1 councillor, Henry said the city is looking at different organizations from across the country to make sure that its best practices are up to date.

"[We're] making sure that we understand what others have learned from events, but that will be part of the municipal emergency plan updates that we will be bringing in the coming weeks," Henry said.

Public communication

Other strengths listed in the report include effective collaboration and public communication — even though there was plenty of confusion among Calgarians when the pipe first broke.

"In the initial hours of the feeder main break, incomplete information was available to provide to the public that would clarify the extent of the emergency. Although there was public confusion, the use of multiple channels to communicate to the public was a success in changing the public's water consumption behaviour," said the report.

Still, the city could have done a better job of helping the public understand the uncertainty and complex nature of the break, according to the document.

"As the event progressed and the impacts became apparent, messaging needed to change; this negatively impacted the public trust of citizens who felt more information should have been given," reads the report.

Outside council chambers on Tuesday, Mayor Jyoti Gondek addressed concerns raised about the city's confusing communication during the water main break.

"People want to know what's happening and we did not do a great job of that in the first three days. We got better, but it was important to immediately tell people what had happened.… People wanted more information than we provided," she said.

"We need to be willing to provide whatever information we have at the moment we have it. We shouldn't get mired down with trying to provide all of the answers up front."

Gondek also said during the council meeting that city staff who act as spokespeople during emergencies should receive crisis communications training.

Henry said the city also needed to move a bit faster in getting emergency communications out to Calgarians in languages other than English and French.

"The first translation that we had out to folks was on Monday the 11th," Henry said, noting it came days after the initial feeder main break on June 5, 2024.

She added that after the first delay in translating emergency communications to other languages, subsequent translations were released within six hours of their English and French counterparts.

Henry also acknowledged the city needs to improve its communications around how it handles distributing new information as it comes up during an emergency.

"The number of times that we needed to pivot in this response did cause a challenge in that we were ready to put the feeder main back into service and found these additional hot spots. And it [was] very difficult to explain what was happening in a way that our citizens understood, when they couldn't see and couldn't feel the particular event," she said.

Strengthening emergency response

Using lessons learned from the feeder main break, the city is tackling four initiatives to bolster its emergency response.

The city is also working on updating Calgary's municipal emergency plan to make some roles and responsibilities more clear, and it's expanding its crisis communications team, said the report.

It's also creating more safety and wellness initiatives available to staff members before, during and after emergency events.

An independent review of the Bearspaw south feeder main failure, led by former businessman Siegfried Kiefer, is still ongoing.