Hamilton’s water budget running dry
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This cold winter is causing big problems for Hamilton’s water system. An excess of frost in the ground is causing a huge number of watermain breaks.
Word is that this winter is a “typical” Canadian winter, and that we’ve been lucky for the past few. That just isn’t the case. This winter has been the coldest in more than 50 years, and the city’s water main breaks are just an example. It’s called a ring break. Caused by frozen ground around a pipe. And this year it’s happened a lot.
Contractor Lou Clemmencio of LM Enterprises said: “It’s been extremely, extremely busy.”
And messy. Crews in Ancaster work as fast as they can to stop the water before it turns to ice.
And over on Webber Avenue, they’re pounding the pavement as notices go up that water will be shut off for some time.
When asked to compare this year to other years, Lou said: “I think the last year that was this bad was back in 93-94 I believe it was.”
There are 4 crews from the city who work round the clock, and this year they’ve had to call in 10 contract crews to help.
And while this seemingly endless winter has created and endless amount of work, here we are only in March and the city’s already eaten through their budget.
In a typical year, the city has spent around $500,000 on watermain repairs by March. This year they are approaching $2 million.
Dan McKinnon from the city of Hamilton said: “We’ve basically seen about a years worth of work by about the first week of March this year.”
This unusually cold winter has created an excess of frozen ground. Water pipes are buried 5 feet down to protect against frost which typically goes 4 feet down, in a cold year.
Dan said: “We’re seeing frost, easily at five feet, and deeper this year.”
McKinnon even looked at the average winter temperature over the past 50 years and so far 2014 has been the coldest by a substantial margin — and he says: “We’re not out of the woods yet, that’s for sure.”
So there’s more work to be done, though crews have had enough. “I can’t wait till winter’s over.”
So the city has eaten through its budget, but luckily they have reserves for this type of thing. But the frost has been so bad this year that it will take 1 to 2 weeks of temperatures above zero to thaw the ground.
