Water Breaks Info
*Please note that there is another water break effecting the 1000, 1100 & 1200 5th Avenue and the 400 Block of 10th & 11thSt E. Crews are on site, however, as gas lines are in the immediate area, this complicates the repair. Repairs will be completed as soon as possible.*
The Town of Regina Beach has recently experienced a number of water disruptions due to a number of system breaks. Since December 25th, 2021, there have been seven water system breaks. One of these breaks was a water main line, causing thousands of gallons of water to flow before the valve could be turned off. An isolated area of the Town, between 9th St E and 12th St E was without water until the water main line could be repaired. The remainder of town was switched over to the gravity system. This was intended to be a very short-term solution however with the need to address additional repairs in the area between 9th St E and 12th St E, the Town has not had the opportunity to switch back. The water main line between the intersection of 5th Ave and 5th St. E and the intersection of 5th Ave. and 12th St. E is the original construction of cast iron pipe, installed prior to 1975. Although there are significant portions of Regina Beach that have PVC waterlines, there are still sections of town that require cast iron pipes to be replaced. The time to replace infrastructure is before the end of it’s expected life span rather than decades after, however, almost every municipality in Canada is faced with an “infrastructure gap” that resulted from municipal budgeting for maintenance and replacement costs for the current year, or short term at best, rather than long range infrastructure replacement taking into consideration what was in the ground as well, not just the buildings. The high costs of digging and replacing underground utilities is a stark reality, potentially causing the need for millions of dollars with a short period of time, as the aged pipes give out more and more.
Not only is the Town of Regina Beach facing the infrastructure gap that Canada is, we are also facing the realities of ground movement, and many of the system breaks have occurred on residential service lines where natural shifting of a main water line has resulted in a perpendicular line being pulled apart from the main line or snapped apart at a weak point.
As soon as the situation stabilizes, we are prepared to switch back to the regular water system of a combination of pressure and gravity. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience to those who have been dealing with low pressure as well as for the disruptions of those who have been without water. The Council of the Town of Regina Beach is working towards a comprehensive Asset Management Plan with updated information on expected life and replacement costs and are currently investigating to ensure that any road surface replacements take into account the condition of the infrastructure under it.
The Town’s financial position is available on the website here Statement of Operations - 2020.pdf (reginabeach.ca/budget-financing)
