Ottawa's frozen pipe problem growing, wait time now 5 days
Properties with no access to drinking water due to frozen pipes will have to wait a minimum of five days for the thaw, as the City of Ottawa's worst winter for frozen pipes in more than 20 years continues.
As of 7 a.m. Thursday, the City of Ottawa said it was aware of 128 properties with frozen pipes — 32 of which have been without service for more than 72 hours.
The memo said that the targeted time to respond to new reports of frozen services is 24 hours but that restoring service could take much longer.
"City crews make contact with the affected residents, assess the property and distribute bottled water. If the service is frozen, residents are now being informed that the time to thaw is a minimum of 5 days," the memo said.
In addition to bottled waters, those without access to water have free access City of Ottawa recreational facilities to shower, the memo said.
Almost triple last winter's total
City environmental services general manager Dixon Weir said Thursday THAT nearly 400 properties have experienced frozen pipes, nearly three times last winter's total of 135 and the worst winter since the early 1990s.
"The winter of 2003 had (a) very significant amount of frost and frozen services, I think we've gone beyond that," he said.
Weir said the city has bought new equipment to thaw out frozen pipes, hired private contractors and transferred staff from other departments such as electricians from water plants and maintenance workers.
"Our spending on our winter operations will be significantly higher, there's no doubt about that," he said.
"It's more of a manpower thing than a procurement or purchasing issue but it won't provide constraints later on."
Weir said they've also started asking neighbours of people with frozen pipes if they can connect a hose from their home to the other so they can have drinking water, with free water for March for the home offering it up.
He said this is the first time the city has done this.
