Lethbridge Herald

Proposed class-action lawsuit filed over Calgary water main break

A proposed class-action lawsuit has been filed against the City of Calgary, claiming businesses needlessly lost significan­t revenue due to a water main break.

In a statement of claim filed Wednesday, Angel’s Cafe, located near the June 5 water main rupture, alleges the city knew the failed pipe was made of lower-grade materials and should have moved to prevent the failure.

“The city knew or ought to have known about the Bearspaw water main’s state of disrepair before the rupture and was required to take reasonable steps to prevent a catastroph­ic premature failure from arising,” the document says.

The break in the pipe, which carries 60 per cent of the city’s water, caused major disruption­s for the city’s 1.6 million residents and those in surroundin­g communitie­s. It flooded a neighbourh­ood and forced a boil-water advisory in that part of the city.

All residents were asked to cut their water use by 25 per cent. They were urged to flush toilets less often and take shorter showers. Watering lawns and gardens was forbidden for weeks, unless it was from rain barrels.

The lawsuit has to be certified by the courts to proceed as a class action. Angel’s Cafe is currently the only plaintiff named in the claim.

The allegation­s have not been proven in court. A City of Calgary spokeswoma­n said officials were aware of the lawsuit but had not received the statement of claim in order to comment.

A spokeswoma­n for the city-owned utility provider Enmax Corp., also named as a defendant, said the company received the lawsuit and will assess it.

The cafe’s lawyer, Clint Docken, said there’s ample evidence the pipe was in danger of failing.

The lawsuit alleges there have been at least 600 previous catastroph­ic failures of the same kind of pipe.

“These failures were well-documented and widely publicized,” the lawsuit says.

The document says the pipe, which dates from the 1970s, uses reinforcin­g wire insufficie­ntly protected against corrosion. The document also says the pipe uses concrete that’s porous and prone to erosion.

The suit says eight additional weak spots on the pipe were uncovered during the repairs.

“All of these weak points existed before the rupture and were capable of being detected by the city,” the document says.