File Photo (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By James Peters

The Big Melt

With last week’s snow now melting, City of Kamloops asks residents for help clearing catch basins

Jan 22, 2024 | 3:40 PM

KAMLOOPS — The mercury has risen Monday (Jan. 22) and that means all of the snow that fell on the Kamloops area over the course of last week is beginning to melt.

Water from that melt is pooling on streets and sidewalks throughout the city and, because of the large mounds of snow piled up at the side of city streets, much of it is not able to get into the city’s storm sewer system and drain away.

City of Kamloops Utility Services Manager Greg Wightman says pooling water presents the potential for significant damage.

“It’s really different across the city, as you can imagine, with the different topography that we have,” Wightman told CFJC Today. “You do have that localized flooding on streets you see a lot, of course, in some of the flatter areas of town. Up the hill, generally a little more delayed on the snowmelt, but definitely a larger possibility of water running into areas that we don’t want it to run.”

To that end, Wightman is asking residents to help out by identifying covered catch basins near their properties and clearing them.

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“We’ve got more than 7,000 catch basins in the city, so there’s no chance we’re going to get to them all,” he said. “Keep that clear, make sure that water that is starting to melt is able to get into that catch basin. It will help keep your property and your neighbour’s safe.”

The city has created a map to show the locations of catch basins on the local road system, and encourages residents to use that tool to determine whether they have one nearby.

Meantime, a period of frigid temperatures is often followed by a few broken water mains, but Wightman says the city has escaped largely unscathed.

“We were really fortunate this time around,” he noted. “Generally, when we see the majority of the issues as far as breaks and failures is actually on the warming end of a cold snap like we had. We’ve kind of gone through that at this point. We did have a water main break (Sunday) night on Munro Street that crews were out dealing with, but outside of that, it was pretty quiet this time around.”