Winter puts the chill on Toronto’s pipes

New map from Toronto Water shows most frozen water lines occur in neighbourhoods with older housing.


Thestar.com
March 3, 2015
By Katrina Clarke

A new map from the city shows the hotspots where frozen water woes are affecting Torontonians this winter.

According to the Toronto Water map - which pinpoints around 700 homes across the city that require a water line thawing or have received a thawing - The Beach boasts the most concentrated area of water problems, along with spots in East York to the north.

Reasons for these clusters vary but “the general answer would be the age of the home,” said Lou Di Gironimo, general manager of Toronto Water.

“Even if you go to the western end of the city, that is typically older housing stock. And so the situation is how they were plumbed, the type of insulation they have, whether they have finished basements or even heated basements,” he said. “That contributes to the problem.”

The city has received more than 2,900 “no water calls” since the cold snap started taking its toll on pipes on Feb. 14. Nearly half came in the first three days.

By comparison, the city got 1,600 no water calls in all of 2014. The calls were clustered in similar areas, said Di Gironimo.

According to Toronto Water, the city had resolved all but about 500 of the complaints as of Tuesday.

In most cases, the “no water call” dealt with a private plumbing issue, meaning the city doesn’t get involved. Some calls were also duplicates, said Toronto Water. The city is intervening in 725 cases.

More than 220 homes have received a “water service line thaw.”

The city sends a crew to dig into the soil - typically around two metres down - and thaw the frozen pipe by hand. The process involves inserting steam through a tube into a cut in the pipe.

A little over 300 homes are on a temporary “highline” setup. These homes have a line hooked up to a neighbour’s water supply - with the neighbour’s consent - until a full thaw can be arranged. (In a few cases, the pipes will thaw before the city’s thawing intervention is necessary).

But in nearly 200 cases, the neighbours either refused the highline or the setup wasn’t mechanically possible. Those homes are designated “priority 1 thaw” and are scheduled for a thaw appointment seven to 10 days after the call is addressed, said Di Gironimo.

More information on frozen pipes can be found on the city’s website at toronto.ca/frozenpipes.

To view map: http://www.thestar.com/content/dam/thestar/uploads/2015/3/3/toronto-water-leaks-web.jpg