New centre to protect Stoney Creek
Simon Fraser University is building a new winter operation centre at its Burnaby campus to reduce salty road runoff into nearby Stoney Creek, one of the Lower Mainland’s most productive fish streams.
The $1-million, university-funded structure, to be built next to the campus’ facilities services building in time for the 2010-11 winter season, will have an underlying impermeable membrane surrounding the entire complex to prevent salt migration.
“We are having to dig really deep to do this in a time of scarce resources, but we believe it is the right thing to do regardless of the cost,” says Lee Gavel, SFU’s chief facilities officer and university architect.
The storage facility will capture incidental salt-truck loading spillage in underground storage tanks and pump the resulting saline solution back to the surface via a brine maker. The automated system will recycle the underground solution and dilute it for de-icing hazardous roadways.
“This process will minimize the need to discharge to the sanitary sewers and therefore lower the load on the sewer treatment plants,” says Gavel. “It also plays an important sustainable role as the operation collects salt-laden water, cleans it and converts it to brine. Additionally all salt handling will take place under cover. Spillage will be collected and reused.”
The new complex and other salt-management improvements were prompted by a 2009 Stoney Creek Environment Committee report linking high conductivity levels in creek surface water to road-salt migrations. SFU’s own research confirmed the link.
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Comments
Comment GuidelinesWonderful news! The fish will be thanking you once the contamination from the old shed has been removed. The Stoney Creek Environment Committee first reported a possible salt problem in 2005 and confirmed in 2009 that the level of contamination was actually killing fish.
jon
Bravo!