Kamloops water station will gain flexibility at cost of $680,000

KAMLOOPS – Upcoming repairs to a Juniper Ridge water station in Kamloops should stop it from shifting for the foreseeable future.

City councillors gave the go ahead at this weeks council meeting for $680,000 in emergency repairs to the Juniper Ridge Water Booster Station.

Utilities manager Micheal Firlotte says the fix is to deal with structural issues.

“The whole station has shifted which strains the pipes that lead to and from it,” Firlotte says. “We’re installing flex couplers.”

Right now the pipes going in and out of the station are rigid. Firlotte says the replacement will allow for flexibility in those pipes, like replacing straight straws with bendy straws.

“There hasn’t been an upgrade to the station in a number of years,” he says.

The station was built in 1974 and last upgraded around 2006, but only electrical and pump systems were effected. City engineering staff say Kamloops inherited the station after amalgamation.

Mayor Peter Milobar says the area had become notorious for its shifting ground, eventually causing the closure of the Valleyview pool.

Instead of waiting for the issue to reach critical point, Firlotte says the city is being proactive on this situation.

“We felt out best cost effective solution was to allow for the station to move,” Firlotte says. “It allows us some flexibility.”

Residents in North Kamloops, Brocklehurst, Westsyde and Valleyview may have noticed low pressure or discoloured water on Jan. 28 or 29 as tests were being run to plan for the repairs.

Low pressure and hazy water may again be an issue for the same neighbourhoods on Feb. 10 as an isolation valve is installed in the Valleyview Reservoir so that repairs to the booster station can proceed.

To contact a reporter for this story, email Brendan Kergin at bkergin@infonews.ca or call 250-819-6089. To contact an editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.