Municipal crews busy dealing with watermain breaks

The City of Niagara Falls has repaired more watermain breaks this winter than during the same period last year.

Crews have been called out to deal with 19 breaks between Dec. 21 and Jan. 10, up from 14 in 2016/17.

There were just seven and five between Dec. 21 and Jan. 10 in 2015/16 and 2014-15, respectively.

“Because of the low temperatures staying well below seasonal levels (between that period this winter), we’ve experienced a higher number,” said Geoff Holman, the city’s director of municipal works.

“Over the Christmas holidays we had a dozen or so that we probably in previous years would have had maybe half as many. The sustained cold for a long period of time pushes the frost into the ground.”

City officials said breaks due to cold weather are more likely to occur at the end of a cold snap (thaw period) rather than the deep cold itself.

Holman said most of the watermain breaks have been on the public side, under the road, as opposed to in boulevards, “so there has been some disruption of service not just to the water supply, but also impacts on traffic.”

Repairs typically take between six to eight hours.

He described a watermain break as anything from a leaky service, hydrant valve, main-line water valve or an actual crack or break in a watermain.

“Most of these occur in metallic mains, so like ductile iron or castiron mains, which are of a little older vintage. Typically we’re going to find them in our metallic mains, which is the older sections of the city. There doesn’t really seem to be any rhyme or reason as to where they’re happening, they seem to be kind of spread out.”

Town of Fort Erie staff have also been busy repairing watermain breaks so far this winter.

The town deals with about 50 during a typical year, with about 40 occurring in the winter.

Director of infrastructure services Kelly Walsh said crews have been called out to about 10 watermain breaks so far this winter.

He said there are other issues that may result in a break and it’s never easy to determine how they occurred, but it’s probable the frigid temperatures in past weeks are to blame for the most recent ones.

Walsh said it usually takes a full work day to complete a repair if a problem is reported early enough in the morning, and if town staff needs to attend to a matter involving a main break after business hours, they receive overtime pay.

He said there’s nothing homes and businesses can do to prevent watermain breaks, but there are precautions people should take during harsh temperatures to avoid water service disruption.

“If you suspect your pipes are getting close to freezing, run your taps for a few minutes to bring in some of the warmer water,” he said.

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— with files from Kris Dube, special to The Review