Thursday, August 06, 2009

Learnings from Other Municipalities - Edmonton #1

Hamilton (the City of Waterfalls) has 77 or so of them and one high level bridge.

Edmonton (the City of Champions) has but one waterfall and it flows off their high level bridge, or did until this summer.

According to the Edmonton Journal, the Great Divide Waterfall which usually "operates" about five times a year is turned off until 2010.

While it is speculated that tourists will be disappointed, they'll have to wait until the city has figured a way to get the chlorine out of the water as it is detrimental to fish and natural habitats in the North Saskatchewan River.

Thirty million litres of water cascades off the bridge each year adding 0.4% of chlorinated discharge into the river.

A "hired" consultant is going to sort out the options and the cost of dechlorinating the water and report back later this year.

Disappointed tourists can, hopefully, check out some of the areas more natural water features until the taps start to flow again.