748 replies to this topic

[rjag]

^ so in other words just another average year. Must be really hard for Catherine McKenna to make all these claims with a straight face these days.

[Mike K.]

67mm of rain record through the 15th at the reservoir, with the average for September being 64mm.

 

The Sooke reservoir is 71.1% full.

[Matt R.]

I just got my water bill (North Saltspring water, even though we are in the CRD) and I noticed for the first time that there is a winter rate and a summer rate, winter being lower obviously.

How did I miss that previously?

Matt.

[Mike K.]

Despite one of the rainiest months in recent history, and despite our water restrictions still being in effect, the Sooke reservoir was depleted by 0.8 percentage points over the last week.

 

On September 15th the reservoir was 71.1% full. On September 22nd it was 70.3% full. In that week 30.3mm of rain fell on the reservoir. The total for the month is 97.6mm. Average water use between both reservoirs for September is 152.3g/d, while the overall average (2014-2018) for usage in September is 144.3g/d.

 

To put things in perspective, between July 28 and August 4th (the peak of summer) 182.9g/d was used (plus evaporation), 3.3mm of rain fell, and the reservoir dipped from 81.4% to 79.8%, or a 1.6% difference.

 

How could we drop capacity during a period when over 3cm of rain fell, and during a month that is just below 10cm in total precipitation (so far), while demand should theoretically be significantly lower as virtually nobody is watering their lawns/gardens, washing their cars, etc. Is water being spilled already? Are municipalities flushing mains? It makes no sense that our water usage would increase during a very, very wet month.

[Nparker]

...How could we drop capacity during a period when over 3 cm of rain fell, and during a month that is just below 10 cm in total precipitation (so far)...

Someone goofed in reporting the figures?

[Cassidy]

How could we drop capacity during a period when over 3cm of rain fell, and during a month that is just below 10cm in total precipitation (so far), while demand should theoretically be significantly lower as virtually nobody is watering their lawns/gardens, washing their cars, etc. Is water being spilled already? Are municipalities flushing mains? It makes no sense that our water usage would increase during a very, very wet month.

The CRD is legally obliged to maintain an increased flow level in both the Sooke River and the Goldstream River (both fed by their same-named reservoir systems) for the Fall spawning season.

As the rainfall general increases through Fall and Winter, the Sooke and Goldstream River systems rise to their maximum flow either by design, or due to their spillways being topped ... both of which increase flow to Goldstream River and Sooke River.

 

What could appear on paper to be consumer usage is really just incrementally increasing river flow levels to legally mandated seasonal minimums.

[Mike K.]

Aha!

That makes sense.

[LJ]

How could we drop capacity during a period when over 3cm of rain fell, and during a month that is just below 10cm in total precipitation (so far), while demand should theoretically be significantly lower as virtually nobody is watering their lawns/gardens, washing their cars, etc. Is water being spilled already? Are municipalities flushing mains? It makes no sense that our water usage would increase during a very, very wet month

 

The CRD has been flushing mains all through Langford the last few days.

[Mike K.]

As of October 20th we're sitting at 114.2mm, 67% of the monthly average. Yesterday's rainfall alone likely contributed another 50mm bringing us to the average. I'll estimate that we'll end up with 110% for the month.

[Rob Randall]

https://globalnews.c...flint-michigan/

 

Lead levels in the tap water of some parts of Montreal are as high as those in Flint, Michigan, at the peak of their water crisis in 2015, says a senior city official.

 

 

Engineer Marc Edwards, a professor of environmental and civil engineering at Virginia Tech who helped expose the water crisis in Flint, Mich., in 2015, sees parallels in the numbers between the two cities.

“These samples from Montreal with a five-minute flush are definitively worse than a three-minute flush from Flint because you flush longer and you still have more lead,” Edwards said in an interview.

 

[Stephen James]

https://www.thestar....oxic-metal.html

 

Probably the same article.  Note, only in AB and BC is it not required to test at the residence level. 

 

Lead levels have been an issue in Victoria and Oak Bay (known) for some time, utterly ignored by council, because they haven't been forced yet.  The CRD is required to test ONLY to the point their system meets the city system and...guess what?  The city doesnt bother (neither does Oak Bay.)  Having said that, the CRD has acknowledged lead levels at the points where their system meets Victoria's and Oak Bay's.  One wonders how a city could know this, for years, and yet still not test at the residence level to measure a known issue.    

 

...and Colin Plant is breezily telling us how we can afford a few more bucks to the CRD at over 6 increase %.  Detached from reality.

[Rob Randall]

Reuters: "Trump expresses frustration about water efficiency, says sinks don’t have enough pressure and people have to flush toilets multiple times. He says he has directed the EPA to look at opening up water standards. It’s called rain, he says, referring to states with lots of water."

[Nparker]

Leader. of. the. free. world. 

[Rob Randall]

"We have a situation where we're looking very strongly at sinks and showers, and other elements of bathrooms ... You turn on the faucet and you don't get any water … People are flushing toilets 10 times, 15 times."

 

Video: https://twitter.com/...055422388736000

[Nparker]

The US didn't have to wait 500 years for this to come true. https://en.wikipedia.../wiki/Idiocracy

[Rob Randall]

I think if you're flushing your toilet more than three times you don't need a plumber, you need a doctor.

[LJ]

In AZ we have low flow toilets, one flush success is quite limited, two, fifty-fifty, three the rest of the time.

[Rob Randall]

Trump's at it again tonight at the Michigan rally:

 

Trump: "Dishwashers. We did the dishwasher, right? You press it. Remember the dishwasher? You press it, boom, there'd be like an explosion, five minutes later, you open it up, the steam pours out, the dishes...now you press it twelve times, women tell me...again, you know they give you four drops of water. And they're in places where there's so much water they don't know what to do with it."

 

"Sinks. Showers. And what goes with a sink and a shower?"

 

Crowd: "TOILETS!"

 

Trump: "Ten times. Right? Ten times. Not me, of course, not me. But you."

[Tailor]

Uh, so increase your water pressure from 50psi to 80 and wait for your pipes to burst... and that won't even affect your toilet, as it's gravity fed from the tank.

[Mike K.]

Through January 12th we are at 99% of September 1 - January 12 rainfall (887.1mm, vs the average of 897.3mm).

 

We'll see how the CRD handles the snowfall amounts, as we had discussed this very thing last year when February/March's snow did not appear to be included as rainfall precipitation (converted, of course) but it might have well been.

 

Sooke is at 92.9%, Goldstream at 76.8%, 91.5% average.