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fee WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 1991
DEE Vol. 7; Issue No. 11 oe

Phone 635-7840.
Fax 635-7269.

Serving the communities of Terrace, Thornhill, Usk, Cedarvale, Kitwanga, Meziadin, Stewart and the Nass Valley

Seventy-five cents -
plus GST

VOLUNTEERS TO THE RESCUE. An attached shed was destroyed, but quick action by
Thomhill Volunteer firefighters saved a Sande St. residence on the weekend. A thick column of
black smoke marked the focation of the fire which started in the shed sometime before 3:30 p.m.
Saturday aftemoon and threatened to spread to the home. The cause of the fire Is stii under
investigation. For a look at what firefighters do with their rather limited spare time, tum to page B7.

reservoir —

expansion

considered —

TERRACE — Construction of a
new reservoir is being considered
by the city. The project, if it goes
ahead, will increase the volume of
the city’s reservoir size by a factor
of about 50 and provide residents
with a better quality water supply.
According to director of engi-
neering Stew Christensen, the
proposal comes from a recently
completed $35,000 study of the
city water supply that began with
the adoption of the 1990 city
budget a year ago last month.
While exact details aren’t yet
available, Christensen says the
project would consist of an earthen
dam located about a half mile west
of the Deep Creek reservoir at the
headwaters of Spring Creek. The
dam, which would have very little
if any effect on Spring Creek
water users, would be approxi-
matcly 300 feet wide and 35 feet
high, and the cost would likely be
in the neighbourhood of $500,000,
a sum of money much less than it
would cost for what some might
consider the ultimate solution —
something akin to a small version
of Vancouver's Cleveland dam that
might cost closer to $10 tillion.
But while a $10 million project
might forever end the annoying
summer-time sprinkling restric-
tions, the proposed project at about
five percent of that cost is
expected to improve the situation
well beyond its present. state. A
best guess at the present time, is
that summer sprinkling restrictions

might be reduced from the current
average of every second year lo
about one in every four to eight.

It should be noted, however, this
estimate is based on a second
phase to the project: doubling the
size of the present water line
between the reservoir and the city.

The greatest improvement, how-
ever, might not be so much in
water quantity as it is in water
quality. According to Christensen,
both Spring and Deep creeks con-
tain water of much better quality
than the Skeena River. And
according to John Knowles of
UMA Engineering in Vancouver,
the consultant who did the reser-
voir study for the city, our two
greatest health concerns locally are
giardia lamblia (beaver fever) and
algae.

But no giardia problem has been _

detected in Deep Creek and the
using the headwaters of Spring
Creck won’t make any significant
difference, says Knowles. And as
far as algae is concerned, the low
pH factor (slight acidity) of Spring
Creek water will tend to discour-
age algae formation, and the smal!
amounts of algac that might form
can be controlled with an algicide
(control chemical).

A the present time, a lange por-
tion of our water supply, during
periods of heavy. use, comes from
the Skeena River. In fact, at one
point fast year, the Skeena was our
only source -of ‘water. The Deep

— Continued on page A2