Innovation Summer 2025

MILL CREEK FLOOD PROTECTION - DIVERSION STRUCTURE

largest and most complex capital project, primarily due to the diversion structure and its complicated geometry needed to hydraulically model, study and analyze, as well as its impact on managing water behaviour during floods. Company: CIMA+ Participants: Ali Taleb, P.Eng.; Ali Malekian, Ph.D., P.Eng.; Hossein Fayyazi, P.Eng.; Ali Norouzi Zarmehri; Jesica Ferguson, P.Eng.; Zhe Su. P hoto : S ubmitted by CIMA+ C anada

During the 2010s, the City of Kelowna experienced multiple floods in the Mill Creek area due to high water levels in spring. Climate change doubled the 200 year flows from 12 m³/s to 24.3 m³/s, overwhelming existing flood control structures. The project improved the city’s flooding issues, enhanced public and staff safety, and reduced the risk of damages to properties and businesses. The objectives included improving the hydraulics of a diversion structure, increasing the amount of water diverted towards Mission Creek, managing debris, and improving the upstream pass for spawning fish that had been previously blocked by the original structure. This project was the city’s Prism Engineering provided engineering and related project management services for the implementation of a heat recovery system at Hope Recreation Centre, following a Low Carbon Electrification study. Completed in 2024, this project can achieve annual energy cost savings of $25,200 and reduce carbon emissions by 88.7 tons. Previously, the facility relied on an ammonia plant to make ice and natural gas boilers to heat the pools, wasting heat and producing GHG emissions. Additionally, the ammonia posed safety concerns the Fraser Valley Regional District (FVRD) aimed to eliminate. The ammonia ice plant was replaced with

HOPE RECREATION CENTRE HEAT RECOVERY SYSTEM

a CO2 plant that circulates glycol under the ice slab, capturing waste heat for under-slab, lap pool, and hydronic heating across the facility. These necessary equipment replacements enhance energy efficiency, safety, and sustainability. Company: Prism Engineering Participants: Iram Green, P.Eng.; Stephen Kooiman, MASc, P.Eng.; Tim Aske, P.Eng. P hoto : S ubmitted by P rism E ngineering

Innovation Summer 2025

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