Civil Engineering

How many times have you seen a road like this?

A pavement in this condition is a ticking timebomb ready to self destruct. An asphalt pavement is meant to serve as a wear course for vehicles to drive on safely, but just as important is it’s function as a barrier against the elements. When cracks like this occur, water can penetrate the base and sub base courses, breaking down the structural integrity of the road. The pavement also becomes much more susceptible to frost damage in cold climates.

Reading articles like the following is enough to make you wonder what it is going to cost to replace all the roads in Canada, (and the water and sewer pipes underneath as well)!  read more »

Click through to the post page for the list of conference live blogging notes.

I'm currently in Whistler enjoying some great interaction with attendees of the Water and Wastewater Annual Conference, and have selected a variety of sessions that are relevant to my position as the City Engineer, particularly looking at Grant Applications, Water Utility Management, Water Supply, Demand Management and Stormwater. These are all issues that drive the sustainability of a small community such as Rossland, BC and many others that are represented at this conference.
This page will represent an aggregate of the notes that I take through each session. As I post additional sessions, I'll update them on this page. The notes are not like my typical posts - however they represent a quick capture of the ideas that stuck in my head during the presentations.

Technorati Tags: BCWWA, Water, Wastewater, Sewer, sustainable water, sustainability, environment, British Columbia, Whistler, Whistler, BC

Heavenly at Lake Tahoe has installed some heavy duty stormwater treatment capability to protect receiving waters from polluted runoff generated in parking lot areas...
Heavenly Mountain Resort Blog » Blog Archive » Keeping Tahoe Blue

To mitigate damage to the clarity of Lake Tahoe, four large filtration vaults under the parking lot will purify runoff from the 15 acre facility. “The goal is to meet stormwater discharge standards,” Michelle says, “which are really stringent.” The filtration is accomplished by 428 ZPG filter cartridges which strain out sediment, chemicals that can pollute the downstream flow of Bijou Creek and damage the clarity of Lake Tahoe. These filters use zeolite, perlite, and granular activated carbon to remove Nitrogen, phosphorous, suspended and dissolved solids turbidity and sediment from the parking lot runoff.
The System is designed to handle a 20-year 1-hour storm event as required by the Tahoe Regional Planning agency and the Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board. The system can handle a 15 cubic foot per second flow, or the equivalent of 1 inch per hour. Any excess flows will be diverted around the system.
Each filter sits on a hole in the bottom of the vault which leads to the discharge duct. Runoff from the lot enters the vault and fills it up until water pressure activates a siphon effect within the cartridges. Water enters the filter media from the bottom and is drawn up to the top where clean water drains through a tube and out through the floor. The filters cost $250 to replace and can last up to seven years.

It's neat to see a ski resort taking responsibility for the stormwater pollution generated by its activities and those of their visitors. These guys are trying their hardest to meet the high expectations of their patrons with investments in low-emission snow groomers and higher efficiency snow making equipment.

For those who wish their local hill would take on these type of projects, remember that Heavenly has 30 lifts and can service more than 50,000 skiers per hour - this is the largest hill in California.

Technorati Tags: skiing, Tahoe, Heavenly, Lake Tahoe, stormwater, stormwater treatment, runoff, water, water quality, ski resort

Many parts of the world have no modern sewer system. In China, it is reported that about 41 trillion kilograms of untreated sewer is pumped into lakes and rivers every year. In Mumbia, one report states that there is an area where one toilet serves 5,440 people, (source: Blue Covenant, Maude Barlow, 2007). In North America we are blessed with sanitation, and considering that there is estimated to be almost one toilet in the US for every one of the more than 303,000,000 people, I think we have very little to complain about. North Americans waste billions of litres of water of water everyday, and a lot of this goes into the sewer system - that is not a sustainable situation. Locally, the Regional District of Kootenay Boundary (RDKB) is in the process of wrapping up Stage 1 of their Liquid Waste Management Plan (LWMP). This stage of the process is designed to gather background material and preliminary concepts for the future requirements based on population and legislative requirements. The next stages plan out the details of a proposed system and identify costs and action items required.  Read more after the jump...

At times this blog is an appropriate outlet for my professional activities, but for the most part, I try to stick to offering commentary on what I see in the world around me particularly when it comes to Urban Design and Engineering. In the past two years while writing on this blog, I've come to realise the importance of community and neighbourhood in my job - Creating places for people to live and interact, and designing services such as roads, water networks and sewer systems to support a higher quality of life all comes back to community and neighbourhood.

As an Engineer, I'm often in the firing line for my designs, policies, suggestions or other commentary on various issues. It's hard not to stereotype those who choose to make a sport out of asking questions and generally objecting to everything in sight. I do believe that dissent is a critical part of decision making, either for offering an alternative viewpoint or for galvanising the supporters on a particular issue. But dissent, just like decision making itself, needs to be undertaken with respect for community. There are real people involved, real issues that affect real lives. Part of my job is to build bridges between those who make the decisions and those who disagree with the decisions.

As I write this I have a draft post sitting of to the side -  One that I feel needs to be said, one that many people I know won't want to hear. I wrote this as a substitute for tonight, kind of my way of not saying what I need to say.

Peace.

Last night the staff of the City of Rossland provided a two hour long meeting to residents on the topic of development within the City.

In a presentation entitled, "Does Development Pay for Itself?", this question was answered in terms of the myriad of financial implications, the development and zoning  process, and engineering and infrastructure (which was my area of responsibility).

After each speaker, a quick ten minute question time was set, to allow residents to ask questions pertaining to the presentation, and when the three speakers were done, a further twenty minutes of question time commenced.

Questions that were not answered were written down and handed to staff after the presentation. I was impressed with the general nature of the questions, the concerns of residents typically reflected those of staff. Issues raised included Development Cost Charges, affordable housing, water management, sewer capacity and required upgrades, and costs to developers.

The Mayor recorded the proceedings and will make copies available for those who were not able to attend.

Leave a comment if you were there, and let us know what your thoughts were. Click on the link below to see a pdf of the presentation...  read more »