City Takes Week To Release Critical Mishap
Why did it take seven days to learn of this critical infrastructure situation?
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This is a release from the City of Ottawa:
Subject / Objet Bayswater Watermain Date: November 21 2024
The purpose of this memo is to advise Members of Council of a critical watermain break within the Ministry of Transportation of Ontario (MTO) corridor near Fairmont and Young Street and the subsequent response and mitigation measures that are in place.
Background
On Thursday, November 14, Infrastructure and Water Services staff responded to a critical watermain break within the Highway 417 corridor near Fairmont Avenue and Young Street. The location of the break is within the construction limits of the MTO sound barrier project. The Infrastructure and Water Services Department (IWSD) team successfully isolated the watermain break and implemented contingency plans to ensure the continuity of water services. The MTO sound barrier project team is working with the IWSD response team to investigate the break site to assist IWSD in developing our repair plan. The City’s water system remains safe although the extent of the isolation has impacted overall resiliency of the system.
Due to the proximity of Highway 417 and the complexities to access the site, IWSD has activated its Departmental Command Centre on Tuesday, November 19 to coordinate communication, mitigation, and response efforts related to the repair. On November 20, the City’s Office of Emergency Management entered Monitoring Operations.
We are working closely with the MTO to develop and implement a repair plan that protects the Province’s critical transportation asset and restores our water system to normal operation.
Mitigation Measures
Out of an abundance of caution and to protect the water system resiliency, staff have implemented a ‘no-dig zone’ around watermains that are critical to maintaining resiliency. These critical watermains (dotted black line) are illustrated in Figure 1. Any proposed excavations which present a risk to the critical watermains will undergo a risk assessment and may be prohibited or in some situations may be permitted under strict operational constraints. The no-dig zone will be reviewed and amended as additional mitigation measures are implemented.
Staff are working closely with industry and City partners to communicate the no-dig restrictions, monitor the impacts, and provide updates as changes are made. IWSD staff will work closely with identified projects on a case-by-case basis to develop solutions that will maintain the integrity of the City’s drinking water system while supporting continued construction and development projects.
IWSD has well-established mitigation and response measures for situations like this and have experienced professionals overseeing all aspects of the water system to ensure the continuity of service and the safety of the system. Staff will continue to provide updates as more information becomes available.
If you have any questions, we have assigned a Councillor Liaison function for this response. Please do not hesitate to contact Carol Hall, Incident Command Administrative Chief at Carol.Hall@ottawa.ca or (613) 857-3549.
Tammy Rose
General Manager
Infrastructure and Water Services
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Well, there’s a novel approach to “maintaining resiliency”.
Other municipalities curate maps of their watermains and define ‘no-dig zones’ BEFORE excavations start.
Apparently here, “out of an abundance of caution” they do the risk assessments after a watermain is wrecked.
Keep up the inadequate work!
“abundance of caution.” Def: a very large quantity of something. e.g. “the tropical island boasts an abundance of wildlife.” Surely “appropriate” or “necessary” or standard” would fit the bill – unless what they are saying is there is a redundancy of caution – twice what is needed perhaps? Maybe three times – it being “abundant” – like tropical birds.
Perhaps it’s taken a week to figure out how to spin this. The good people at Happy Town News may have had difficulty massaging why the MTO was excavating so near a watermain that it presented a risk to City infrastructure.
I must say I’m greatly relieved to hear that they have “experienced professionals” overseeing the water system. We wouldn’t want somebody who didn’t know what they were doing, now would we! It does rather beg the question of how this kind of thing happens in the first place under the eagle eyes of such impeccably-qualified staff members. You need to be careful when you brag about staff competency when you’re explaining something that shouldn’t have happened.
I know that if I want to dig in my backyard, I have to check with the City and the utility companies to ensure there is nothing under the surface that has to be avoided. Does MTO not also have this requirement? It’s not mentioned in the memo but who will be responsible for paying for this? We shouldn’t be covering MTO’s mistakes.
I suppose we should be relieved that it was a watermain they hit and not a Hydro line.
I read these memos from general managers and upper managerment at city hall and can’t help but wonder if they’re being paid to write them so they will have to be read multiple times in order for the reader to understand the point, or if point form data is provided to an AI writer (eg, ChatGPT) with instructions to “use polite language and make me seem intelligent”. Councilors don’t have time to read this .