The Village of Harrison Hot Springs was awarded the 2017 Association of Consulting Engineering Companies of BC Awards for Engineering Excellence, Award of Merit, for The Miami River Flood Pump Station replacement in 2016 on behalf of The Village engineering consultant firm CTQ, in council chambers on Monday.
“The project has been ongoing since 2013, where we managed to get a grant which was a third from the federal government, a third from the province, and a third from the Village,” said CTQ Consultant for the Village Matt Cameron.
The original pump was aged, with its original installation date going back to the 1950s. It had been upgraded a few times over the decades, but was failing and in need of an overhaul, causing the Village financial stress, whilst they implemented back up pumps to pick up the slack.
“When the lake level rises during the freshet, the Miami River can’t get into the lake, so it’s pumped over the dyke and into the lake, ” said Cameron. “The other challenge with this project was the existing pump was not fish-friendly. Basically, the rate of mortality of the fish going through the pump was 100 per cent.”
With the improvements, the mortality rates of the fish was declined to just over 10 per cent. After some careful research, QTC, looked to the Dutch, who have mastered the dyke system and took their cue to implement a fish-friendly pump.
Landustrie Worldwide Water Technology of Holland was commissioned to build two Archimedes screw pumps to exact standards and specifications. Each of the screw pumps were 2.8 meters in diameter and 9.0 meters in length and were based on the original design by the Greek philosopher, Archimedes, with a few modern modifications.
The pumps are hard to miss with their bright Canary colour, but there is a reason for the distinctive choice. During design phase, CTQ, were cognizant that even colour choice can have an environmental impact. CTQ contacted fish biologists to determine the best “fish-friendly” option, and this research showed Canary Yellow as the best option.
“It was a great project, it was an incredible team, we had a team of hydraulic engineers, geotechnic engineers, environmental engineers, structural engineers, architects, civil engineers and process engineers,” said Cameron. “It went through an intense timeline — we started on Dec. 30 2015 and we finished in April of the next year.”