Annual General Meeting 2017

We've had a good deal of water under the bridge, so to speak, since I last posted.  I guess it's a case of events taking over the agenda.  Over the past year and a half, the system has had to deal with a couple of major leaks, the startup of a medical marijuana grow operation in the subdivision, some equipment issues, over 25% of the properties changing hands....  Let's just say that it's been busy.

First, however, let's deal with the AGM held in late September 2017.

Aside from the usual business, there were two special resolutions that had to be dealt with.

First, was a general rate increase.  Our last increase was in 2011.  Since then, it goes without saying, the cost of everything we purchase has increased: hydro, water treatment materials, repair parts.  The proposal to generally increase rates by about 10% was approved by the membership.

One feature of the new rate structure was the addition of a 4th Rate Tier.  Because of one major issue of excessive water use (as described in another post), and as suggested during a meeting with a representative from the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resources (MoFLNR), it was decided that the most expedient way to deal with gross waste of water would  be to incorporate a 4th rate level that would be, simply put, punitive.  Accordingly, anything over 200 m3 in a quarter would be charged at a rate of $4/m3.

Partly because of this waste of water issue and also the need to move our bylaws online to meet requirements of the BC Societies Act, it was decided that we needed a re-write of our bylaws.  There was a proposal put forward to the membership, but it was deemed to have too many residual difficulties and so a committee was set up which would do the re-write and present that to the membership.  

The remainder of the meeting was devoted to welcoming new members to the subdivision, electing a Board of Directors, receiving various reports and having some general chit chat.

Water, Water, Everywhere...

Starting in late fall 2016 and continuing until May 2017, the system experienced a couple of significant leaks that consumed a good deal of volunteer time and required considerable sleuthing to track down.  You would think that such volumes of water would be easy to follow to their source, but such was not the case. The story unfolded this way...

Late in the fall of 2016, it was noticed that the reservoir level was dropping more than would normally be expected, given the time of year.  Obviously, a leak.  But where was it?  We wandered the route of the main line, we wandered around the different properties, we checked consumption at water meters, but we still couldn't figure out where the water was going.  One complicating factor was the amount of snow we had that winter.  Feet of it, making it nearly impossible to see wet ground, not to mention the thought of digging holes to fix anything.

Then, one day in mid-March, as I was spending some time wandering around, wondering where the leak (or leaks....) were, I happened to open a curb-side meter box and what to my wondering eyes did appear but a foot or two of water in what should have been a dry hole.

Unfortunately, this was only days before I was leaving for 6 weeks in Europe, and there was still snow around....  We decided to wait.

One practice we had been following was to turn off the water to the west and lower part of the subdivision at night, in the desire to lose less water.  We'd been doing this every night between 9 pm and 6 am.  We decided to keep that up for another 6 weeks.  Later in April, we set to work.

Once we started digging, the leak became apparent pretty quickly.  What's amazing is how much water can disappear through a relatively small hole.  And that's all it was.  A piece of copper pipe with a small hole right at a fitting.  A few hours of work and that was fixed.

Observation over the following few days indicated that our problems hadn't been solved.  Large volumes of water were still going somewhere.

By early May, we had determined that at least some of it was going to one particular property, one which had, initially unknown to us, started a medical marijuana grow operation, using large amounts of water for cooling purposes.  In mid-May, we decided to install a second water meter near the shutoff valve at the edge of the property.  Just as we were preparing to dig that hole, I received a call from a neighbour on the adjoining property.  Were there springs in the area, she wanted to know.

So the next day, after we excavated for the additional water meter, we dug a small hole along the side of the house where the "spring" seemed to be, and found a break in a waterline.  An hour later and it was fixed.

Our problems weren't over, as the next post will explain.

Annual General Meeting

The Society's AGM was held on August 22nd.

In addition to the usual business conducted, there was some discussion about water rates (a slight adjustment to the rates was approved) and, of all things, the mosquito control program.

Because of a Board member leaving the community, one vacancy was filled by a new member.

Minutes of the meeting and financial statements were presented and circulated by e-mail.  Any member wishing further information should contact the Society.

Water Quality During the Spring Runoff

It's spring.  Snow in the surrounding hills is melting.  As everyone here knows, this increases the sediment in the streams and rivers and makes our water source, Kootenay Lake, more murky, or turbid.

While increased turbidity isn't necessarily unsafe, it's considered an indication of risk.

If you want to read a short article from Interior Health, you can find it here:

http://www.interiorhealth.ca/YourEnvironment/DrinkingWater/Documents/turbidity.pdf

In our water system, we have several ways of dealing with turbidity and monitoring the safety of our system.

1. We filter the lake water and clean filters regularly
2. We treat with chlorine
3. We test chlorine levels regularly
4. We can also test for turbidity

Recent tests (as of April 30, 2013) show Lake water from our intakes (about 100 ft deep) to have a turbidity of around 3.5 NTU.  This would merit a water quality advisory if we were drinking unfiltered and untreated water. Anything over 5 NTU rates a boil water advisory.   After filtering and treating, turbidity measurements show around 0.5 NTU or less.  This is what you are getting in your taps and is considered "good" according to IHA.

Chlorine tests done every few days show a free chlorine level of around 0.5 ppm at the reservoir.  Sometimes it's bit higher, very occasionally, it drops below that level.  We aim to keep the free chlorine level at around 0.4 to 0.7 at the reservoir.

We also take water samples regularly to send in for bacteriological tests.  If bacteria were still in our drinking water, it would show up in our test results.  Fortunately, we have had quite a few years of negative results other than a small number of positive results following a drop in chlorine levels as a result of an equipment failure.  Generally our regular monitoring catches these situations before they become problems.

If anyone has questions or concerns about our water or would like more information about our testing procedure, contact us at prwus.info@gmail.com.

Pine Ridge Water Utility Society is owned and operated by members of the Society which is made up of residents of the Pine Ridge subdivision.  We depend on volunteers.

Tracking Down Leaks

 Over the past while, perhaps a few months, some of us have had this feeling that water use seemed to be unusually high.  As an example, in the past couple of weeks, we were running the lake pumps for 8 hours/night and only seeing an increase in reservoir level by 1 foot, about half what we would expect for that amount of pumping time.  Discussion between a few society members focused around where such a leak could possibly be.

The first problem in tracking down such a leak is that you'd expect to see some water lying around.  We're talking about a possible couple thousand gallons of water every day.  We looked around and saw nothing.  Meter readings at the end of March showed that water use at every residence was completely normal, so we abandoned the idea that someone was running a water slide/water park in their back yards.

Finally, we decided to start isolating parts of the subdivision and started with the lower west side of the system, turning the water off for most of one afternoon and running the lake pumps to see if a normal rise in reservoir level was restored.

With some relief, that is exactly what we saw happening.  So, where was that leak?  We happened to notice some water in a standpipe access pipe and then saw that the ground around one shutoff valve was a bit damp.  A few passes with a shovel revealed very saturated soil and when one property's water was turned off, the leak stopped.

We had an excavator in the next morning and the leak, tracked down to a small crack in a brass fitting, was repaired.  A good example of a $2 part in a $100 hole.

Thanks to Bill J and Dave for taking part of their day to fix the leak and the sleuthing that discovered the source.  With any luck, we should be back to running the lake pumps for 3 or 4 hours each night.

High Water

 
 A cool, wet spring accompanied with unusual amounts of rain contributed to one of the highest water levels in Kootenay Lake this year since 1974.


This picture shows how close the high water came to the intake building which houses the electronics for the pumps.


One radio commentator I heard today noted that if it wasn't for the dams on the Kootenay River, the water level in the Lake could have been as much as 7 feet higher.

Field Trip - Ymir Treatment System

As part of my own little field-trip day, I visited the water treatment system at Ymir. This is a small community of 200+ people between Nelson and Salmo. It gets it's water from a surface supply (a stream west of town) and has a new treatment system operated by RDCK.

The Regional District took over Ymir's water system a few years ago, and installed a modern treatment system. I visited the plant with one of the RDCK's techs who was there to do some routine testing.

The plant pumps stream water through 3 large tanks that contain sand filters, then through a set of 5 micron and 1 micron cartridge filters, then through a set of parallel UV tubes and finally past a chlorine injector system. All system parameters are monitored in real time and the computer controlling this can be accessed by the techs from any of their computers.

Some pictures of the inside of the treatment plant are here.

RDCK has had, up to this fall, 16 water systems that they manage. After this fall/winter, they will be adding 3 more systems.