calgarylens
live record51.0447°N · 114.0719°Walt 1045 m
file 01topic · water7 figuresengagement →claims register →
last updated · 2026.04

Calgary water,
measured against its own ceilings.

Public data on Calgary’s water system, drawn directly from the City of Calgary and its open-data portal. Each figure on this page cites its publisher and any transformation we applied; the JSON behind every chart is committed to the public repository. For the specific public claims being made about these figures — and our responses to them — see the claims register.

water · case filepeak demand · observed
698
ML/day
2025-06-09 — about 73% of plant capacity. Even at peak the plants have headroom; the 2024 Bearspaw rupture showed the feeder main, not capacity, is the system's actual fragility.(/water/daily)
Bow summer flow vs 1912–1941
-28%
30-year means at WSC gauge 05BH004 — early (30 yrs) vs recent (30 yrs). Annual mean has shifted -7%; the summer (Jul–Sep) season — when demand peaks — has dropped further.(/water/bow-flow)
plant capacity · daily
950ML/day
Bearspaw 550 + Glenmore 400 post-upgrade. Binding daily ceiling — annual headroom doesn't help on the worst day.(/water/daily)
residential · 2024
47%
Of total system water — including non-revenue water. Residential is the single largest end use; ICI, regional, and municipal split the remainder of the revenue 78%.(/water/demand#sector-shares)
water loss program · 2027–2030
51%
$179.4M of the $353.9M Plan budget goes to the Accelerated Water Loss Program (pipe replacement, leak detection, cathodic protection).(/water/budget)
[04]

Plan budget, 2027–2030

The Water Efficiency Plan’s 2027–2030 budget envelope is $354M–$420M total. The largest single line is the Accelerated Water Loss Program ($179M) — pipe replacement, leak detection, copper-lead service replacement, and similar infrastructure work. Advanced metering is $161M, the second-largest line. Programs and policies (the “rules” portion: outdoor schedule, rate design, education, business programs) total $12.5M of operating budget — about 3.5% of the plan.

Pipe replacement (the Accelerated Water Loss Program, $179M) is the Plan’s largest line — more than the advanced-metering line ($161M) that some critics frame as the headline cost. Hand-transcribed from Attachment 8 Tables 1–2 of Council Document CD2026-0150 (the Water Efficiency Plan administrative report) · capital figures are 2027–2030 estimates from Table 2; ten-year totals from Attachment 13 as referenced in Table 2.