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Shelburne Free Press https://shelburnefreepress.ca/?p=6177 Export date: Wed Jul 3 15:32:43 2024 / +0000 GMT |
Deep freeze that caused rare action ending Shelburne's recent call for homeowners to keep a water tap dripping to avoid frozen pipes during a prolonged deep freeze came at a time when the Great Lakes were 88.4% frozen over, the most in 20 years, and even Niagara Falls had partially frozen. In Shelburne, CAO John Telfer had taken the emergency action after the Public Works department found itself overburdened with calls for assistance with frozen pipes. His assessment was that it would be less costly to the town to credit water users for their extra consumption than to bear the costs of using Public Works staff to thaw pipes as the freezing conditions continued. Town council approved his preventative decision at its meeting Feb. 11. The freezing of water pipes to residences might raise the issue of what precautions are taken to protect water pipes in winter. Ontario regulations are apparently based on established “frost lines,” but those don't predict the outcome of a prolonged and incessant freeze such as the one just apparently ending. Whether established frost lines are reliable measures of risk might be largely problematic and not apply during a polar vortex such as the one that caused the problem of frozen pipes. And frost lines vary across the province. It is assumed to be 1.8 metres at Ottawa, for example, and one metre at Windsor. A study recently conducted at a Buffalo university by Stephen Vermette and Jack Kanack modeled frost-line soil penetration using “freezing degree-day rates, day length and sun angle,” all of which they found affect the depth to which the frost will go. Snow cover is also said to have an insulating effect. The researchers cleared snow from their points of investigations. The Daily Mail, which published spectacular Reuters photos of a frozen Niagara Falls on the weekend, was predicting that we are now headed into “a widespread thaw.” A thaw might lead to flooding in low-lying areas but the two conservation authorities responsible for central and north Dufferin – Grand River and Nottawasaga Valley – both have emergency measures plans in place. Grand River Conservation Authority, responsible in centre Dufferin for Melancthon and Amaranth, warns however that “Flooding is a long-standing problem in the Grand River watershed and it will never go away. “The changes that have been made to the land - cutting down forests, draining wetlands, paving large swaths of land, tile draining rural areas - guarantee that flooding will continue.” By Wes Keller |
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Post date: 2014-02-19 14:41:32 Post date GMT: 2014-02-19 19:41:32 Post modified date: 2014-02-26 10:53:07 Post modified date GMT: 2014-02-26 15:53:07 |
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