Spring flood almost overwhelmed Kelowna’s storm sewers

KELOWNA – Last spring’s flood waters were so high, the city had to pump water out of storm sewers to keep them from overflowing.

Utility services manager Kevin Van Vliet says the record high waters forced the city to rent a half a dozen large pumps and install them at points along the Kelowna waterfront and at the same time, close off some of the large storm water discharge pipes downtown and in the Mission.

“We created a kind of dyke in our system near the lake and pumped water over it,” Van Vliet says.

While it may seem counterintuitive to close off the sewers and pump the water back into Okanagan Lake, Van Vliet says water would have quickly backed up into the discharge pipes, rendering them useless as drains.

Besides the high water table, Van Vliet says local residents pumping water out of their basements and crawlspaces also helped push the storm water system beyond capacity.

While the spring 2017 flood has been described as a one-in-two-hundred year event, Van Vliet says the city has used industrial-scale pumps before during high-water events, most often at a location near the Delta Grand Hotel.

While permanent pumps are not on the radar, Van Vliet says his department is considering a 2018 budget request for equipment to make it easier and quicker to shut off the discharge pipes and install the pumps when needed.

The spring flood saw Okanagan Lake reach an unprecedented 342.25 centimetres above sea level. City officials have estimated damaged to civic infrastructure at almost $9 million although disaster relief funding from the B.C. government will cover about 60 per cent of that amount.


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John McDonald

John began life as a journalist through the Other Press, the independent student newspaper for Douglas College in New Westminster. The fluid nature of student journalism meant he was soon running the place, learning on the fly how to publish a newspaper.

It wasn’t until he moved to Kelowna he broke into the mainstream media, working for Okanagan Sunday, then the Kelowna Daily Courier and Okanagan Saturday doing news graphics and page layout. He carried on with the Kelowna Capital News, covering health and education while also working on special projects, including the design and launch of a mass market daily newspaper. After 12 years there, John rejoined the Kelowna Daily Courier as editor of the Westside Weekly, directing news coverage as the Westside became West Kelowna.

But digital media beckoned and John joined Kelowna.com as assistant editor and reporter, riding the start-up as it at first soared then went down in flames. Now John is turning dirt as city hall reporter for iNFOnews.ca where he brings his long experience to bear on the civic issues of the day.

If you have a story you think people should know about, email John at jmcdonald@infonews.ca

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