Frozen water line calls drop but risk not entirely over

By Medicine Hat News on March 23, 2019.

The city says there have been fewer calls reporting frozen water lines recently and that has given crews a chance to catch up.

The city’s environmental utilities department is still attending to frozen water lines but the risk of more occurring reduces with each passing day.

Since Feb. 1 the city has responded to 336 locations with frozen water services leaving some homes with no water for up to several days.

“As few new calls have been coming in over recent days, the situation is under control,” said Brian Murphy, general manager of environmental utilities. “We sincerely appreciate everyone’s co-operation and understanding during this situation. By running taps to prevent water lines from freezing customers helped the city in its ability to respond to an unprecedented number of emergency requests this past month.”

There is still frost in the ground so those who want to play it safe can continue to run a pencil-width flow of water. The credit for running taps continuously to prevent frozen lines remains in effect until March 31, 2019. In particular, homes that experienced a frozen water service over the past month are advised to continue running a tap through next week to be certain the risk has passed.

Seasonal reminders about the protection of water lines can be found at http://www.medicinehat.ca/eu under Water Utilities – General Information: https://bit.ly/2J1gaJ8

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