Dozens of Calgary homes still have frozen water lines despite above-ground warmth

It may be warming up now, but the particularly cold winter Calgary experienced this year still has a firm grip deep underground, freezing the water pipes leading to dozens of homes in the city.

"We've still got frost as deep as eight or nine feet," said Chris Huston, the city's manager of drinking water distribution.

"So it's still pretty cold underground."

Calls for frozen pipes are "still trickling in," he added, despite the spring weather.

With one more coming in Tuesday, Huston said there are currently 43 water-service lines that are frozen in the city.

All told there have been 271 cases of frozen lines this year, he said. Crews have managed to thaw most of them, using either steam, hot water or electric heating.

But many remain stubbornly solid, Huston said, thanks to the particularly cold winter the city endured.

A situation like this "doesn't happen too often," he added.

"The average frost-up in Calgary is around seven feet," Huston said. "Most of our infrastructure is buried below eight feet. But when [the frost] gets to that eight-foot range, it starts to have an impact on services and pipes."

Sharing with neighbours

Among those affected isJulie Barnes, who woke on on March 5 to find the pipes frozen in her Wildwood homewith no viable way to quickly thaw them.

"One lady that Italked to informed me that it could be 'tilthe end of May that we'll be under this situation," she told CBC News."I was kind of horrified when she said that, and very upset."

Barnes said the city dropped off jugs of drinking water and others for flushing the toilet, thensent a plumber to install a ball valve to help a crew to steam their frozen water line, but it remained frozen. Finally, they tapped into the neighbour'soutside water faucet to provide some degree of water service, but the pressure is low, she said.

"If ourneighboursare showering at the same time,it's almost a trickle, but wecan function," she said.

Huston said the solution can vary from home to home. Sometimes crews can force hot water back down the pipes toward the main. Other times steam can be applied to the exterior of the pipes. Sometimes electric heating is used.

Freeze could last another month

At the dozens of homes where pipes remain frozen, however, nothing has yet worked.

Huston said it could take until mid-May before they unfreeze.

"This warm snap will hopefully bring it out sooner than that," he said.

Meanwhile, residents of another 1,200 or so homes that are at risk from the low frost level have been told to keep a small amount of water constantly running to keep their pipes flowing.

"We understand it's an annoyance," Huston said."But it does prevent the pipe from freezing again."

He said the city will adjust the water bills at those homes so the residents don't have to pay for the extra water use.

And, as bad as the winter of 2019 has been for water service, Huston said it's not the worst on record.

"In 1978 or 1979, I think we had 2,500 frozen services."

With files from the Calgary Eyeopener