Sunday 16 May 2021

Spring Waterline Maintenance


     Our water comes from a waterfall on Sunbeam Creek.  He have a large culvert in the middle of the falls to catch the water and funnel some of it into our waterline.  (The arrow is pointing out the culvert.). Every spring when all of the snow on the mountain top begins to melt in earnest, torrents of water come shooting down the falls carrying rocks and gravel with it.  That gravel can fill up our culvert and stop the water from flowing into our waterline.

    To prevent this we have a heavy iron grid-like screen (initially used by Highways for screening gravel) that we put over the top of our culvert to prevent the rocks from collecting inside.  We take this heavy duty screen off every winter so it doesn’t cause our intake to freeze up with ice, and then every spring we have to put it back on. 

    As you might imagine by the steep slope of the falls, maneuvering the screen onto the top of the culvert is a rather dangerous job,  I wore a safety helmet and was strapped onto the culvert so I wouldn’t be swept away if I slipped.  Together with Glen, our neighbor and fellow waterline user, we manhandled the screen into place, so that takes care of one of the yearly worries I have this time of year.  Hopefully the spring runoff will be mild and we don’t encounter any unexpected problems with the waterline.

                                            You can view my paintings:  davidmarchant2.ca

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