Creativity has helped Armstrong with its annual cleaning of sediment at Fortune Creek’s intake dam.
The dam requires annual cleaning of sediment build-up from the spring freshet.
In April, the city’s public works department custom-built and installed a slide gate valve on the exterior of the dam. This allowed for stream flow control, and flushing of sediment during runoff.
“This year’s draining and inspection of the intake dam revealed minimal build-up of sediment and cleaning was not required,” said public works manager Tim Perepolkin.
“We will continue to control flow and flush the dam during the spring freshet annually to determine if it’s possibly reducing our turbidity into the disinfection facility and distribution system.”
Perepolkin said this was the first year in many that the city did not have to implement stage two water restrictions during spring runoff as a result of a high turbidity.
