CALGARY — A report says Calgary’s catastrophic water main rupture in 2024 was largely the result of two decades of underinvestment and insufficient knowledge of the risk of pipe failures.

The report was released Wednesday after months of work by an independent panel tasked with studying what lead to the burst Bearspaw South Feeder Main, which provides treated drinking water to 60 per cent of the city.

The breakdown led to months of water restrictions, and the issue has been the spotlight again after the water main ruptured again last week in the city of 1.6 million people, forcing a renewed round of restrictions.

The risk of disaster was traced back to 2004, when another water main fractured in the city. That break raised concerns for other parts of the city’s water system built with the same type of pipe, including the Bearspaw, the report says.

In the years that followed, it says, there were a number of projects to assess and mitigate risks with the Bearspaw pipe, but they were put off in favour of other initiatives.

“This deferral was a function of underestimated likelihood of failure, not appreciating the significant impact of a failure, emphasis on other priorities and occasional periods of operating budget constraints,” the report says.

“This pattern, which persisted over two decades, across multiple leadership teams and organizational structures, reflects systemic gaps in the water utility’s approach to managing critical infrastructure.”

The panel wrote that disjointed governance hierarchies in the city aided in the issue in going unaddressed for so long, as no single executive is solely accountable for the water department.

The lack of responsibility by any one manager, on top of the deferred inspections and monitoring, meant multiple eras of city council were also kept in the dark, the report says.

“Reporting to council was periodic and high-level, providing limited transparency into operational and risk performance,” it says.

“Council also had limited access to the independent technical expertise required to provide oversight to management and evaluate complex trade-offs between service, cost and reliability.”

Panel chair Siegfried Kiefer told reporters that he doesn’t think blame should be placed on any individual or past city councils.

“We had management underinformed about the implication of their various decisions. Without the knowledge of the implications of those decisions, it’s difficult to put blame, if you will, on any specific decision or any specific point in time,” Kiefer said.

“We had a process weakness that was not corrected.”

The report adds that Calgary isn’t alone in struggling to keep up with necessary maintenance for water infrastructure, citing Statistics Canada figures showing more than a quarter of water mains across the country are due for repair.

It says Calgary’s problem is unique, as its low population density means it has more kilometres of pipe per resident than any similar-sized Canadian city.

The five-member panel recommends new processes for identifying and managing infrastructure risks across all city departments.

It also recommends a stand-alone water department operating as a municipally owned corporation, like Edmonton’s water utility provider EPCOR.

Kiefer said it’s difficult to put a price tag on the recommendations but that they wouldn’t lead to “a rate shock event” for Calgarians.

“We don’t see this as being out of the ordinary in terms of getting to a mature, well-run water utility,” he said, adding most necessary staff already exist.

With the second major Bearspaw line rupture, residents have been asked again to take shorter showers and reduce toilet flushes and loads of laundry and dirty dishes.

The line is expected to be fixed early next week. But Mayor Jeromy Farkas said that’s not the end of it and more interruptions can be expected until the line is fully replaced.

Farkas and the rest of council were scheduled to have a special meeting later Wednesday to discuss the report.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 7, 2026.

Dayne Patterson, The Canadian Press