The number of water main breaks this year has decreased by over two-thirds versus last year, but that’s due to the weather and not the replacement of pipes, a city councillor says.
Moose Jaw has seen 28 water breaks so far, compared to 87 a year ago at this time, city council heard on Sept. 8, during a presentation about city hall’s efforts to communicate with businesses about the cast iron water main replacement program.
The fact the municipality has seen one-third the number of breaks is great, but it’s presumptuous to think a corner has been turned, warned Coun. Brian Swanson. He pointed out that Moose Jaw experienced one of the mildest winters in years from late 2019 to early 2020, with frost not penetrating the ground as deeply as usual.
“We had an advantageous winter to minimize water main breaks,” he remarked.
The bigger concern is that almost 12 years ago, city hall was spending $400,000 on breaks, while this year, $2 million has been set aside to fix the pipes, Swanson continued. What he planned to watch for was how quick council reduced that and directed that money elsewhere, such as on new programs or new hiring.
“I would urge taxpayers to be diligent on that. One year does not a trend make, especially if we revert to a more normal winter,” he said. “I’m hopeful the reduction is a new trend, but I’m a bit cautious on that … .”
City council is supposedly one-quarter of the way through a 20-year program to replace the cast iron pipes, but if that were true, the municipality would have replaced 20 kilometres of pipes already, the councillor pointed out. Instead, it has replaced roughly 11 kilometres of pipes, which means they are one-seventh of the way through the initiative.
Since this is year five of the program, it’s more accurate to say this initiative began under the previous council, he remarked.
“We shouldn’t be counting our chickens before they hatch on water main breaks (and) five years does mean a quarter of the program,” Swanson added.
When council started this water pipe replacement journey four years ago, it talked about eventually taking funds used to repair breaks and moving them over to replacement of pipes, which was always the intention, said Mayor Fraser Tolmie. That money has been allocated for an important purpose.
Council then voted 6-1 to receive and file the communications report; Swanson was opposed.
The next regular council meeting is Monday, Sept. 21.
