Empress Pump Station Traditional Cache
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(micro)
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The cache is a small bison container with only room for a log. Please ensure the cache is properly closed and place it back where it was found. Bring your own writing instrument.
This is the 8th and last in a series of caches at pump stations found all over the city. These caches have been placed with the knowledge & consent of the City of Abbotsford Engineering Dept.
We take it for granted every time a tap is turned, but the bill to quench Abbotsford’s demand for water – beyond the next decade – is expected to cost hundreds of millions of dollars.
While Abbotsford is anticipated to have enough water until 2018, the city’s growing population will dictate that a new water source is needed after that.
The more Abbotsford and Mission residents conserve water, the longer the two cities will have to save for the hefty expenditure. Both communities are currently in the middle of an extensive water conservation campaign.
Right now, 80 per cent of Abbotsford and Mission are served by Norrish Creek, which flows from Dickson Lake in the mountains northeast of Mission. This supply is bolstered by Cannell Lake – located directly north of Mission – and 17 wells in Abbotsford.
Because the 12 reservoirs serving Abbotsford refill overnight (from Norrish Creek and from the 17 wells), the city only needs to worry about its peak daily water consumption.
Water currently available to Abbotsford (million litres per day)
Dickson Lake - 86 MLD
Cannell Lake - 9 MLD
Wells - 61 MLD
Total - 156 MLD
Abbotsford and Mission residents can expect more summer sprinkling bans, and higher bills, as the cities attempt to buy time before investing many millions of dollars to upgrade the local water supply.
A draft report indicates Abbotsford and Mission will need to invest $198 million before 2015 to tap into Stave Lake north of Mission. That would be followed by another $41 million expenditure before 2024 to complete the project.
The Stave Lake project could theoretically be deferred beyond 2015, but would require less water usage on Abbotsford and Mission’s hottest days.
Getting the water from Stave Lake to Abbotsford will require 24 kilometres of pipe stretching along Dewdney Trunk Road and Cedar Street in Mission, across the Fraser River, and then up Gladwin Road to a reservoir on Maclure Road in Abbotsford.
There would be an intake in the lake where the water would be piped to a treatment plant on Dewdney Trunk. At this site, there would also be a “balancing reservoir” feeding the water to the treatment plant at a constant rate. There would be an expansion to the Maclure reservoir in Abbotsford, although no more reservoirs would be needed in Mission.
The two communities are finalizing their joint water master plan, due for official release in December 2009, which lays out recommendations for the next 15 years to make sure reservoirs don’t run dry.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Qba'g srapr zr va.