New Valves Help City Avoid Spring Flooding

Feb. 1, 2000
The signs were all too easy to read ?record winter snow packs on the coastal mountains, seasonal high tides, vulnerable storm sewer outfalls, low lying residential, commercial and industrial areas. Engineers at the City of New Westminster in British Columbia knew they had a problem ? and a short time to come up with a solution. Unless they found an answer before the spring melt in June, the city would face the possibility of serious flooding along the Fraser River.

The signs were all too easy to read ?record winter snow packs on the coastal mountains, seasonal high tides, vulnerable storm sewer outfalls, low lying residential, commercial and industrial areas. Engineers at the City of New Westminster in British Columbia knew they had a problem ? and a short time to come up with a solution. Unless they found an answer before the spring melt in June, the city would face the possibility of serious flooding along the Fraser River.

?We had 23 storm sewer outfalls that would back up whenever water levels in the river got higher than normal,? said Stephen Day, A.Sc.T., Engineering Technologist for New Westminster. ?We knew that the combination of record snow pack melt and high tides in the spring would spell trouble for properties along the Fraser, unless we could implement the right solution.?

The city considered a number of options including traditional flap gates and various methods of temporarily blocking the outfalls. After evaluating all the options, New Westminster decided to install Tideflex check valves from Red Valve Company on all 23 of its storm sewer outfalls. The all-rubber check valves resist warping and freezing. They operate solely on line and backpressure and offer the lowest headloss of any type of check valve.

The check valves also have the ability to seal and close around entrapped debris with less than 1 psi backpressure.

?Maintenance is zero, because the valves are constructed of rubber and totally passive,? Day said. ?There are no mechanical parts to corrode or wear out. That was very attractive for us, because the locations of the majority of our installations are difficult to access.?

Because of the proximity of several installations to residential areas, operating noise was a concern. Opening and closing of the Tideflex valves is silent. ?Some of these outfalls are very close to residential properties along the river, so naturally we wanted valves that wouldn?t call attention to themselves.?

Spring came to New Westminster, the snows melted and the tides rose just as the city engineers predicted. But properties along the Fraser River remained dry.

?The Tideflex definitely met our expectations,? Day said. ?In fact, we have noted several areas that used to flood during high tides now remain dry. It was the right decision for us.?

The new valves not only prevented flooding along the river, they also saved on water treatment costs. The Fraser is a tidal river, with swings that average 2 meters and even higher during the spring snow melt. Under extremely high water conditions, which occur several times a year, New Westminster experiences river surcharges into its systems. In the past, these surcharges have reached combined system diversion chambers and ended up spilling into the Greater Vancouver Regional District interceptor sewer. The flows were then conveyed to the Sewerage Treatment Plant. With the installation of the new valve system, these surcharges are eliminated, reducing city costs for the unnecessary treatment of river water.

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