'Every litre counts': City pleads for Winnipeggers to limit water use as massive sewage spill continues

The City of Winnipeg wants some 90,000 residences and businesses in the southwest area of the city to know that every little bit of water they can keep from flowing into the sewer system helps, after a pipe crossing under the Red River near Fort Garry Bridge broke two weeks ago.

"Every litre counts," Tim Shanks, the city's water and waste director, told reporters at city hall on Wednesday.

"Anything you can do to reduce that water coming through your house and going down the drain will help us on the other end."

On Tuesday, the city asked residents and businesses in St. Norbert, Fort Richmond, Richmond West, Waverley West, Bridgwater, Linden Woods, Linden Ridge, Whyte Ridge, Waverley Heights and at the University of Manitoba to take shorter showers, hold off on washing their cars and take other steps to lower their water usage.

That plea came nearly two weeks after one of the two pipes that cross underneath the Red River near the Fort Garry Bridge, which carry sewage to the South End Sewage Treatment Plant, started leaking — spilling about 228 million litres of untreated waste water into the river as of Wednesday at midnight, Shanks said.

"It's very important to everybody involved ... to try to get this resolved as soon as possible," he said.

WATCH | Here's how the temporary bypass system works:

The city found issues with both pipes, each built in 1970, during a regular inspection last November and took one out of service.

The remaining pipe was in "rough condition" but was believed to still be capable of carrying the sewage by itself, said Shanks.

In December, the city started ordering pipes, specialized pumps and other equipment for a bypass system. Work on that system began on Feb. 5.

However, the working pipe failed on Feb. 7 — sooner than the city expected it to, Shanks said.

"It's a very hard technical thing to do, to try to put an exact date on when a pipe's going to fail," he said.

"This failed before we were able to plan for its replacement."

The city has sped up its work on the bypass system, and though it's been running since Feb. 17, it's not fully complete — only one of the two pumps needed for the system is running. The other pump had to be retested after crews found issues with it last week.