KCB Participates in Workshops at CDA Annual Conference

October 18, 2017

At the recent CDA Conference 2017 in Kelowna, B.C., several KCB staff attended and presented the following papers:

Generating Synthetic Climate Data for Design that Match Natural Trends - Presented by Cindy Wang, E.I.T., Water Resources Engineer

Site C Clean Energy Project: Diversion Tunnel Orifices for Energy Dissipation During Reservoir Filling - Presented by Jeremy Bruce, P.Eng., Civil/Hydrotechnical Engineer, Associate

Site C Clean Energy Project: General Hydraulic Features - Presented by John Croockewit, BC Hydro, and Jeremy Bruce, KCB

The Consideration of Seepage-Rock Interactions on Long-Term Dam Stability - Presented by Lindsay Robertson, P.Geo., Environment Manager, Associate

Lindsay Robertson was also one of the presenters at the knowledge development forum on Environmental Consequences and Classification of Tailings Dams, as part of CDA’s Environmental Consequence Classification Working Group. The working group has been revising guidance for the environmental classification of mining dam failure consequences, and presented two examples: Kam Kotia, a closed mine located in northeastern Ontario, and Mount Polley. Participants were invited to seek clarification and provide feedback on the proposed approach, which will help refine the next iteration of the classification guidance.

In addition, Harvey McLeod, P.Eng., P.Geo., KCB's Vice President Strategic Marketing led the Engineers and Geoscientists BC Site Characterization for Dam Foundations workshop, as part of the pre-conference series of workshops. This workshop provided practical instructions on how to apply the recently published “Site Characterization for Dam Foundation in BC” guidelines. The guidelines, which were developed in B.C., are universally applicable, and provide a framework for adequate site characterization to improve dam safety, and ensure that incidents such as the one at Mount Polley will not be repeated. Harvey is one of the primary authors of the guidelines. A copy of the guidelines are available here.