The Village of Burns Lake was doing hydrant flushing, which is done twice a year – spring and fall. This helps clean the water system from manganese.
Sheryl Worthing, Chief Administrative Officer for the Village of Burns Lake, explained, “The reason we flush Hwy. 16 is because we would cause flooding if we flushed the avenues, and we are unable to release the water directly into the lake because there is chlorine in the water.”
In fact, dumping that excess water directly into the lake is against environmental regulations.
“By flushing Hwy. 16 it helps to clean out our storm system to get ready for spring runoff,” she said. “This process allows us to manage two maintenance requirements at one time.”
The village has been using a contractor’s water truck - Davern Enterprises – to do this work.
“Our water truck is too small, which means we don’t have the capacity to run the hydrants long enough to clear each section of the water system of manganese,” explained Worthing.