Severe Water Restrictions Issued Beaver County Chronicle - Inside Wednesday, January 31, 2024 Vol. 47, No. 05
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Large water leak at Carena shuts down facility Patricia Harcourt Editor
The Town of Viking dealt with a waterline leak that started late Saturday night and shut down the Viking Carena Complex until late Monday. The leak occurred at a hydrant on the northeast side of the complex and has since been resolved. But Sunday morning the Carena was shut down in the middle of a hockey tournament, and several houses nearby went without service until Monday evening. The break occurred sometime later Saturday night or early Sunday morning, said Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) Doug Lefsrud. He said that many residents would have noticed low water pressure on their own waterlines Sunday morning. “The leak was not detected until Highway 14 Regional Water Commission called our public works at 6 a.m. and indicated there must be an issue because their monitoring had alarmed low pressure,” he said. The leak was detected by the commission but he said town weekend staff would also have discovered it during their own monitoring process, he said. “On Sunday we have an operator on standby,” he said, adding: “We do routine checks every day and we would have noticed it. “If the pressure falls below a certain point an alarm would have gone off,” he explained. “The alarm didn’t happen because the water commission guy noticed it before the (town) alarm sounded.” Town residents would have noticed lower water pressure that morning “because we had lost 70% of our water tower water volume,” explained the CAO. Once the HCL Site Services Ltd. crew working for the town got to work on repairs, the cause was pinpointed to an underground valve failure. Lefsrud said the top of the valve separated due to older metal bolts breaking apart. “A new valve is going in with proper bolts made of stainless steel,” he said.
The water leak was repaired by 6:30 p.m. on Monday. The next day crews were busy filling in the pit they had dug and doing a site cleanup. The areas within the Carena that had been closed are now reopened, including the fitness centre, play centre, walking track, and ice surface. Lefsrud commented on the cooperation of those involved in the cancelled tournament. “I want to say how pleased I was with the response from the hockey teams and families. They were disappointed but understood why we had to close the building. They were very respectful to me and my staff,” he said. Since the completed repair Monday night, the water tower has since refilled. But its use is now restricted as a water use restriction has been imposed as of Monday for residents on the entire waterline going through Beaver County. Now that the water is flowing through the pipes the people of Viking and other areas along the line are on a Level ‘B’ water restriction called by Epcor which took effect Monday of this week.
This means the water tower’s water supplies must be held in reserve and two businesses that provide car wash services are not allowed to do so for the time being. Lefsrud said anything that is non-essential use of water is currently forbidden by the restrictions. The leak provided an opportunity for the town to unofficially test out its updated stormwater drainage system. Culverts in the drainage system were widened last year to accommodate larger influxes of water to try and prevent flooding in town. Lefsrud reported that all the leaked water went through the drainage system and out to the collection pond at the golf course, “which is what it is supposed to do.” HCL out of Vegreville also did the stormwater update last year. Lefsrud expressed his appreciation for that work and the current water leak repair. Now that the crisis is over, he also paid tribute the Viking residents: “The people have been fantastic. The community seems to appreciate the fact we were trying to be transparent.”