Water Society AGM

The Society's AGM for the Fiscal Year 2009 was held on Sunday afternoon. About 18 members attended. A few basic highlights:

Maintenance (a favourite topic on this blog) has been in high gear since last spring and many essential projects have been completed with others identified for future attention. A few items remain on the agenda to complete before winter.

So far in 2010, about 175 volunteer hours of work have been contributed to the maintenance of the system. This doesn't include the time spent by people on water teams, the Board, taking water samples, testing for chlorine, doing the financial records and so on.

Financially, the Society is in good shape. It is unlikely that we will have a profit this year given our maintenance spending, but we should be close to a break-even situation by year-end.

The new metered water rates seem to be working well and should provide the Society with about as much revenue as did the old flat-rate system.

Several other items of a routine nature were discussed at the meeting, some of which will be addressed in future posts to this space.

The meeting was followed by a potluck supper.

The Treatment Building gets the Treatment

Any of you who have shared "water duty" in the past year or two will be aware of the slowly deteriorating condition of the walls in the Treatment Building. Finally, with summer rapidly disappearing, some time on the maintenance schedule was set aside for some work on this part of the system.

There are (at least) 2 problems with the building as it was constructed: wood frame walls sitting on a concrete slab and wall finishing of drywall sheets, neither suitable for a building where
there is so much water on the floor and chlorine fumes in the air. These conditions have joined forces to start rot on one bottom wall plate and most of the drywall is crumbling from the high humidity. Recently, two volunteers removed several sections of crumbling drywall, installed plywood in its place, did some painting and caulked along the wall/floor seam to prevent water getting into the wall again.

Over the past week or so, the inside of the building has taken on a new, fresh look (at least some of the walls have, so far). New shelving is being installed, old shelving is in the process of getting some paint, pump switches have been moved to a more convenient location, and wiring has been located to facilitate enhanced pump timers and/or automatic shutoff systems. Some storage is now available for a few small replacement parts that are needed occasionally in that location: canister "O" rings, injector line foot valves, canister drain valves, etc.

As well, the floor has received a coat of new paint, corrosion on some pipes and connections has been covered over with paint, the door has been stained and trimmed to reduce sticking and new filter canister drain buckets have been obtained. All that remains, for this summer, is to stain the outside of the building. Next summer, the plan is to put on a new metal roof and complete the drywall replacement.

A similar treatment is being planned for the pressure building by the reservoir. The next time you're in the building, take note of the changes, just a few of the things needed to maintain a 30-year-old system.

Tricky Leaks

For some time, there's been a suspicion that the valve on the water standpipe below the Treatment Building has been leaking. Finally, it was obvious that something was wrong so we had the valve and the line excavated yesterday. Unfortunately, the system's plans don't really show where the line is so the digging had to be careful. Finally, however, the valve and the nearby pipe was exposed. Sure enough, there was a significant leak from the valve.

A quick cut removed the pipe and a bit of pressure from 2 pipe wrenches freed the valve which was later found to be completely worn out. Once a new valve is received everything will be put back together again.

Water Society's AGM - Sept 26th, 2010

The 10th Annual General Meeting of the Water Society will be held on Sunday, September 26th, 2010 at 3:00 pm at the Kaslo Senior's Hall, 304 - 4th St.

The agenda and minutes of the 2009 AGM have been mailed to all Society members.

The meeting will be followed by a Society-hosted potluck meal. Please bring a salad or dessert.

Please RSVP by Sept 23rd so meeting organizers will be able to plan quantities.

If there are other items for the agenda, please call or e-mail with suggestions.

Comparative Water Rates

There was a notice in the August 17th, 2010 Pennywise from BC Hydro. The backstory to this notice is that BC Hydro has owned and operated the water system at West Robson (near Castlegar) for many years now, basically since the Keenlyside dam was built back in the 1960s. The operator (BC Hydro) is applying for approval for a water rates structure effective January 1st, 2010.

What's interesting at first glance is the rate structure they are asking for. The Residential Single Family annual rate will be $915/year. Reading some of the background information, I learned that $200 of that annual rate will be placed in a reserve fund for future repairs and replacements to the water system. Their system supplies somewhere in the neighbourhood of 50 residences with the potential to supply more. They put a replacement value on their system of about $4.5 million.

The Society just received a letter from the Water Comptroller in Victoria reminding all water system operators that they need to be charging rates that will allow them to accumulate sufficient funds to handle future replacement costs. Looks like free water has disappeared in one more place. Certainly a sign of things to come.

Under Cover

After an all-day session of work on Monday, the water line box up the cliff from the lake has been insulated and covered with new plywood. Some repairs remain to be completed, but at least now the cover is completed and the new insulation has been protected (we hope) from rodents by wire mesh installed inside the box.

Since repairs were started 2 months ago, a total of 53.5 volunteer person-hours have been put into this project, not counting some time spent in obtaining materials, cutting up plywood and generally preparing for the work.

During the project, it was discovered that almost all of the main water line was not insulated at all because of the dedicated work of mice and pack-rats and their urge to move the materials in the box around. It was very lucky that the main water line didn't freeze during some of our cold spells during the past couple of winters. In addition, the old plywood and supporting structures were found to be in pretty desperate shape. We have at least started to replace and repair that structure.

Thanks to to several member volunteers from the community for the hours of work spent fixing this structure: Bill J, Dave, Bob C, Gerda, Doug and Hugh, some of whom put in many hours over the past 2 months and especially to the group for spending all of Monday in +30C heat to complete the remaining part of the project in one day. A few hours of work remain to cover some of the last defects in the old box with new treated plywood, but at least now the majority of the repairs are done. Thanks again to the members who helped out on this important project.

Tackling the Cliff

Over the past couple of weeks, 3 of us have spent a few hours working on repairs to the insulated box that protects the 4-inch water line as it rises about 40 feet up a cliff from the lake pumphouse to where it is able to go underground.

The work hasn't been particularly fast: it involves removing the plywood cover, removing what insulation remains, re-packing the box with both old and new insulation, installing wire to prevent rodent damage to the insulation, reinforcing the box, replacing rotten pieces and finally installing a new treated plywood cover. So far, it's taken us about 2 hours for every 8 ft section. As of Monday, we've done about 32 feet and have about 24 feet left to go to the top of the cliff. After that, another 16 ft at the top of the cliff and the pipe disappears into the ground.

So far, we've been able to work from the ground or from ladders. As we move up the cliff, we will have to bring in climbing harnesses and ropes to provide safety.

The weather over the next few days looks uncertain so this project may go on hold until more summer-like weather returns.