The City of Calgary lifted all water restrictions on Friday, January 16, 2026, after the final pump at the Bearspaw Water Treatment Plant was activated and the repaired Bearspaw South feeder main returned to stable service. The move ended 17 days of Stage 4 emergency restrictions imposed after the main ruptured on December 30.
Restrictions end after 17 days
The city announced Friday morning that with the final pump running and flow through the feeder main increasing, the system was stable and all restrictions were lifted, effective immediately. Normal water use could resume indoors and outdoors for Calgary’s 1.6 million residents and for surrounding municipalities that draw on the same system.
Steam rooms reopened Friday, hot tubs and pools were to return over the weekend, and arenas resumed regular ice flooding. The city said it expected to deactivate the Municipal Emergency Plan and close the Emergency Operations Centre by the end of the day.
“To those of you who cut your water use at home or at work, you made a difference, and we truly appreciate you,” Calgary Emergency Management Agency Chief Sue Henry said in a statement, also thanking the business community for saving water.
How the emergency unfolded
The crisis began at about 8 p.m. on December 30, when the Bearspaw South feeder main broke on 16 Avenue N.W., east of Sarcee Trail, flooding a busy commuter road and stranding some evening drivers. The city activated its Emergency Operations Centre and Municipal Emergency Plan, and Stage 4 outdoor water restrictions followed.
Residents were asked to keep showers under three minutes, flush only when necessary, and run dishwashers and laundry only with full loads. Alberta Health Services issued a boil water advisory for parts of Parkdale, Montgomery, West Hillhurst and Point McKay; it was lifted on January 4.
The stakes were high because the feeder main carries 60 per cent of the city’s treated water. With it out of service, Calgary leaned on the Glenmore water treatment plant and on stored reserves — reserves that cannot be refilled until the spring runoff.
A careful, phased restart
Crews excavated the damaged section, cut it out and welded in a replacement, with the pipe work complete by January 8. What followed was a slow, deliberate return: water samples were collected to confirm the supply met drinking water standards, and once testing confirmed the water was safe on January 13, crews began opening valves to reconnect the main to the wider network.
Pumping from the Bearspaw plant resumed in phases on January 14, with each phase needing about 24 hours to stabilize before the next. The final pump was activated on Friday morning, and monitoring showed the system holding steady.
A pipe that has already broken once
The same feeder main broke in June 2024, forcing a similar round of restrictions. Earlier this month, city council received an independent panel report on that first break, which broadly blamed two decades of underinvestment, a lack of communication and co-ordination, and insufficient knowledge of the risk of pipe failures. The province has also stepped in: Municipal Affairs Minister Dan Williams announced a provincial review and demanded city documents dating back two decades.
Officials were candid that the margin for error remains thin. The city’s infrastructure services general manager, Michael Thompson, warned last week the system could safely accommodate just two more pipe breakages ahead of the spring thaw, and residents, on the whole, used more water during the emergency than could be replaced — a risk had there been a major fire.
Mayor Jeromy Farkas said the repaired pipe, now broken twice in less than two years, has been deemed terminally defective and must be replaced.
“I’m damn excited,” Farkas told reporters, before adding: “We are now in a race against the clock. It’s not a matter of if, but when (the line) fails again.”
Calling the replacement a “moon shot,” Farkas set a one-year deadline for work that would typically take four. “For the next 365 days, this has to be our civic mission,” he said.
