The District of Barriere’s June 1, 2020, regular council meeting was open to the public and took place online via Zoom. The agenda provided over three hours of reports and discussion in regards to the business of the municipality.
A highlight of the meeting was a report on the state of the municipality’s water systems.
• Barriere Water System Update:
Barriere Utilities Manager Ian Crosson, and Thierry Carriou of BC Groundwater provided an update on the municipality’s water.
Carriou reported the progress made with the Louis Creek Industrial Park (LCIP) water reservoir.
He noted an initial absorption of water into the concrete has now slowed down to a minimal loss. One lot in the LCIP has already been connected to the system.”The Louis Creek water system is good,” said Carriou.
Crosson’s report on the Bradford Wells stated, “The rehab work of Bradford Park PW3 well commenced on Tuesday, May 19, with the recommended contractors arriving to site. Included were BC Groundwater, Mountainview Electric, Defiance Contracting and District of Barriere staff. In the coming weeks, we will have Exceed Electrical and TRUE consulting onsite to program the system, implement safeguards, and review a commissioning strategy. DOB staff, once complete, will condition the well and collect health samples to begin to prove its worth. Communication with Interior Health will ensue at that point with respect to putting the Bradford Park wells into the community water distribution system. Past discussion with IHA and TRUE engineering have suggested a key point to which the Bradford Park wells have proven a higher than an acceptable aesthetic level of iron and manganese (yet still below the acceptable MAC level) which causes an oxidization and precipitation of such minerals when combined with chlorine. The addition of chlorine and related monitoring is a first and foremost concern in any water treatment operation. Therefore, it’s imperative to be able to monitor the chlorine residual with upper and lower limits in order to have control of that dose and minimize the risk of discolored water and producing alarm conditions when not in range.”
Crosson requested that Council approve the purchase of a new chlorine analyzer, due to the fact “the current chlorine analyzer is past its life and a replacement is required”.
Council approved the purchase cost of $7,250.88 for the replacement of the chlorine analyzer from SCG Process for the Bradford Park well system.
BC Groundwater rep Thierry Carriou then presented an extensive report to mayor and council on the history of the wells in Barriere based on the information available to him. He spoke about the installations, problems, repairs, status to date, and recommendations for the future.
A lightning strike was reported by the District to have taken out the computer system to the Bradford wells in June of 2019.
Carriou noted he was called in June of last year to investigate the wells in Bradford Park. “We did a field investigation and identified some concerns.”
They completed a field investigation June 24 and found that over a 16 week period the wells were operating 24 hours a day when they should have only been going for 12 hours per day.
“This break in procedure was much higher than it should have been,” said Carriou.
He stated the damage created to PW3 due from over pumping was extensive. “If you lose the structural integrity around the well, you show up one day and you have a huge sinkhole – and you lose that well. Basically we were surprised that the well had survived this.”
He explained the damage to PW3 from over pumping did involve a large sinkhole.
Carriou said they were very concerned that the damage to PW3 would also affect PW1 which is next to PW3. If this had happened it would have created a “dead wall” system and could have destroyed both wells.
“After more investigation we found that no extensive damage had gone into PW1, but we knew it would be complicated trying to breathe life back into PW3 and we ended that inspection in July,” said Carriou.
Options were reported to the District in regards to repairs, and how to recover the wells from a “catastrophic problem”.
“If you are going to repair a well you want to stabilize the sediments. But we knew there was clear risk going forward,” said Carriou, “When you get sink-holing around the wells, you may not see it but it can come back to haunt you 10 years down the road. What we were able to ascertain was there had been an actual sinkhole around the well causing a mixture of sediments, and pumping had actually gone on for about four days. We actually built a new screen within that damaged material, and used that damaged material as an aquifer. Now we have blended material between deep aquifer 1 and 2 and it works!”
He commented that the majority of water from PW3 will still come for deep aquifer 2, “But I don’t expect the quality of water will change that much.”
“Failure of PW3 was an overuse scenario”, said Carriou, “So long as PW3 is taken care of – PW1 can continue.”
The wells were re-certified in October of last year, and Carriou says the recent reports and testing results from May 28, 2020, are very good news. He stated there will still be some sediment monitoring to do, once a month for three months, when the well goes into full production to make sure it is stable.
He noted they estimate the two wells will have a maximum output loss of approximately 20 per cent due to the damage sustained last year.
“But basically you have PW3 back,” said Carriou, “We have no problem re-certifying that well use again. PW3 can be operated – it is a functional well!”
Carriou concluded by adding a few more comments in regards to the municipality’s PW2 well.
“PW2 is old and has been abused, but you can’t rely on it that much. Make sure PW1 is the workhorse and do not rely on PW2 so much,” said Carriou, “I’m worried about you relying on PW2. At some point it is going to die – it will not go on forever. My recommendation is to use PW1 as your main well. Get PW1 on and supplement with PW2 to give it a break. PW1 will always be your lead well, and PW3 is good for 60-70 per cent.”
Other business from the council meeting included:
• Bandshell Fridays:
Legislative Services Manager, Tasha Buchanan, reported, “Bandshell Fridays normally runs on each Friday in the months of July and August at the Barriere Bandshell in Fadear Park. With the ongoing pandemic response to COVID-19, the Province has continued to ban gatherings of over 50 people. While Barriere’s Bandshell Fridays does not normally draw massive crowds, there is often well over 50 people in attendance on any given Friday. The City of Kamloops has also canceled their annual Music in the Park summer program for 2020 along with many other municipalities with similar annual events.”
She noted, “District staff is regretfully recommending that this year’s Bandshell Fridays program does not proceed”.
Councillor Kibble asked if the Splash Pad would be opening?
“Due to the current water restrictions not right now,” answered Buchanan, although council did note that a decision may be made at the next meeting or when the wells are up and running.
• Agate Bay Road Pull-Off:
The District have previously reported they are in support of a request from Interfor to allow the development of a pull-off/chain-up area for use by log hauling trucks on Agate Bay Road between Highway 5 and Old Sawmill Court, paved and built to the same standard as Agate Bay Road with the District not incurring any costs for its development. If, after completion, the actual project cost works out to be less than the amount provided by Interfor, the District will reimburse the difference to Interfor within one month of project completion. Cost of the project seems to have changed from the last report provided by Barriere Roads and Parks Manager Dustin Doherty, which was $31,280 at that time. Doherty spoke at the council meeting, saying he would like to see the budget for the project set at $50,000, and that an additional $100,000 budget be set aside for water lines installation this year to be done before the pull-off is put in, and thereby avoiding having to dig up the pull-off at a later date for the water line installation which must come under the road and the pull-off to get to the Louis Creek Industrial Park. After a fair amount of discussion, council decided to put the pull-off project on hold until more precise information on where the proposed water lines will be going is forthcoming.
• Worksafe BC / COVID-19:
District staff met with a representative of WorkSafe BC at their request asking for an overview of the measures the District has put in place to protect its workers in regards to COVID-19. “The representative was pleased to hear of the protocols we have in place and did not administer any order demands,” reported Buchanan.
• Ridge Building Repair:
SD73 will begin the planned replacement of all exterior doors and windows of the Ridge on June 9th. The work is expected to be completed over 3-4 days and is not expected to impede the business of the District or other tenants.
• Thompson Region Division of Family Practice:
A virtual meeting has been scheduled with community leaders on Thursday, June 11, at 1 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. The meeting’s intent is to:
* Provide an update from the Thompson Region Division of Family Practice regarding COVID recovery plans and how primary care is “re-opening”,
* Provide an opportunity to hear perspectives around how COVID has changed the delivery of health care and what is seen as challenges and opportunities and
* Provide time for a community check-in and hear how local COVID response is changing and to hear any new challenges or successes.
The next District of Barriere regular council meeting is scheduled for June 15, 2020.
To find out more go to: http://www.barriere.ca/node/2 ≠
