Water System

The City of Campbell River manages the distribution and treatment of our water.

Distribution

The City’s Main Distribution System involves a network of water mains. They deliver water from the Campbell River Water Supply Centre throughout the City. The Main Distribution System includes:

• 10,000 residential connections
• 650 Industrial, Commercial, and Institutional (ICI) customers
• bulk supply to three First Nations Reserves and Area D of the Strathcona Regional District

The City’s Industrial Park System delivers water from the Campbell River Water Supply Centre to PRT, industrial users, and a small group of residents.

Water is pumped overland from John Hart Lake. It then feeds into the Main Distribution System by gravity through bulk transmission mains to eight pressure zones. The pressure zones are controlled by 23 pressure reducing stations.

During high demand conditions, the Evergreen Reservoir, Beaver Lodge Forest Reservoir and Snowden Reservoir increase supply to maintain pressure through the system.

The main distribution system delivers water through a 300 km network of pipes. The system consists of many components including pressure reducing valves, hydrants, valves and water mains. It is one of the most complex distribution systems existing in British Columbia.

The Industrial Park System is supplied from the Campbell River Water Supply Centre. It runs along Snowden Road to the Snowden Forest Reservoir and through a pipe network that services the Industrial Park and various residents in the area.

Treatment

The treatment of our drinking waters helps ensure our community's health and safety. To treat our water, we must ensure disease causing microorganism are inactivated.

The water from John Hart Lake is reliable and high quality. We have not been required to filter or treat it beyond disinfection. To disinfect, we use chlorine and ultraviolet light. Chlorine is effective against many pathogens, including waterborne bacteria and viruses. Meanwhile, ultraviolet is effective at inactivating protozoan agents.

Disinfection happens at the Campbell River Water Supply Centre. Water delivered by the Industrial Park Water System also gets disinfected at the Campbell River Water Supply Centre. The Beaver Lodge Forest Water Quality Centre improves the capacity to control and maintain chlorine residual throughout the distribution system. It adds additional chlorine mid-way through the distribution system.

Monitoring

Each treatment facility is inspected weekly by water operators. Additionally, they are continuously monitored remotely by the City’s SCADA system to ensure that systems operated within allowable operating set points. The levels of disinfection by-products (DBP) are also monitored to ensure they are well within the Canadian Guidelines for Canadian Drinking Water Quality.