Fort St. John’s water main leak discovered in December, emergency plan in place if repairs overrun

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — The leak in Fort St. John’s feeder water main requiring repairs later this week was first discovered in December.

The city announced in a press release on February 2nd that a leak in the feeder water main, which supplies raw water from city wells near the Peace River to the water treatment facility, requires immediate repairs.

City of Fort St. John communications manager Ryan Harvey told Energeticcity.ca the leak was detected through both visible water and pressure monitoring along the 11-kilometre pipeline.

“The leak was initially discovered back in December, and we’ve been monitoring it since then, and getting ready with parts and approvals and everything else that we need,” Harvey said.

Repairs are scheduled to begin Thursday, February 5th, a timeline Harvey says was chosen to allow residents time to prepare and to take advantage of favourable weather conditions.

“By getting messaging out a couple days in advance, that allows [people to prepare],” he said. 

“It [also] aligns with the weather window… digging in a hole full of water, if we can give the crews a nicer day to do that, that’s always advantageous.”

The city estimates repairs will take about 48 hours. During that time, Fort St. John will be unable to refill its water reservoirs, which currently hold enough water for four to five days under normal use.

Harvey says several contingency plans are in place should repairs take longer than expected or in the event of an emergency requiring large volumes of water.

“That could include pulling water directly out of Charlie Lake,” Harvey said. 

“But also potentially connecting the pump house down at the Peace River with our wells there, directly through overland pumping to the water treatment plant.”

To ensure enough water remains available for essential services – including fire protection – residents and businesses are being asked to conserve as much water as possible during the repair process.

The city is encouraging people to delay non-essential water use such as laundry and dishwashing, take shorter showers, avoid refilling hot tubs and reduce overall household and commercial water consumption whenever possible.

In addition, the bulk water dispensing stations will be closed until repairs are completed.

According to Harvey, the city knew repairs would eventually be required once the leak was identified, but having the work done in February allowed time to secure specialized materials.

“It’s an 18-inch steel pipe, and that’s not something you can just wander down to the hardware store for,” he said.

The city says it will monitor reservoir levels closely and provide updates as repairs progress.

The feeder water main was initially installed in 1996.