Recent History – 2000
Dec. 11, 2000
POUCE COUPE — Eleven years and $130,000 after it broke down, the 1978 village water tower is back in business.
On Friday, village representatives and contractors gathered for a photo to mark the event that is to return peace of mind to Pouce Coupe water users.
The tower on top of the hill and at the end of 57th Avenue was built to add water pressure and provide a reserve capacity of water to Pouce Coupe. However, about 11 years ago, the altitude valve broke, requiring the public works foreman to check on the water level every six hours, seven days a week.
At the time, it would have taken about up to $20,000 to replace the valve, but the village had no money. And because there were corrosion problems with the underground valves as well, a decision was made to take the tower out of service.
However, engineers told the village last year, had there been a major fire in Pouce Coupe that would have drawn a lot of water from fire hydrants, it would have caused the water pressure in the village to fall and continued pumping could have done significant damage to the water system.
That sparked a renewed look at the tower and council set money aside from its portion of the Fair Share funds for the tower’s renovation.
With Hegge Construction as main contractor, a new control house was built above ground, which houses the computer-controlled valve. The automated system now provides a 200,000-gallon water storage, enough for about 2 1/2 days of normal village water use in case water flow from Dawson Creek is interrupted.
Other work on the system was done by Norcap Electric of Prince George, HE&E of Dawson Creek and Gpec consulting and engineering of Grande Prairie.
Future renovations will include re-sealing and insulating of the tank.