Friday 23 October 2020

Frazil Ice, Our Latest Problem


    2020 is a year that keeps on giving. 

    Yesterday we lost our water and when Glen and I got up to our water intake we discovered a new problem--frazil ice.  Frazil ice, I have now learned, is very tiny ice crystals that form in super-cooled water (it can be colder than the freezing temperature).  Anyway these tiny ice particles can sink to the bottom of the water, unlike normal ice that floats on the top.  We’ve never encountered frazil ice like this before.

    Because it doesn’t float, it can clog up water intakes.  Our big culvert was almost totally filled with “slush” which prevented water from getting to our intake.  The photo shows Glen shoveling out the slush in our culvert.   We got the water going again, but after a couple of hours we lost it when it clogged up again.  It was then cleaned out again, and then by this morning the water was gone.  

    Glen and I hiked up to the falls again this morning and re-routed the water on the falls so more would get into our culvert, then dug out the slush that had filled our culvert again, and replaced our filter.  As a result we were able to get some water flowing back to our house, but the pressure is very low, so we will have to go back up to the falls this afternoon and do it again.

    While we were up there we ran into another neighbor he and several other people who get their water from Sunbeam Creek are also fighting frazil ice in their water systems.

    It is all so discouraging. 


You can see my photo-realistic paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca


 

No comments:

Post a Comment