CASE STUDIES - Whistler

The Resort Municipality of Whistler , located in British Columbia, Canada is home to the number one ski resort in North America and is currently bidding to host the 2010 Winter Olympics.  Recently, Whistler Resort was awarded the 2005 World Snowboarding Championships and is steadily gaining recognition as a premier travel destination for skiers and snowboarders around the world.

The municipality occupies an area of 12,630 hectares and maintains about 100 km (62 miles) of water and wastewater pipe and has one of the most advanced wastewater treatment plants in North America, classified as a Level IV treatment plant (aerial photograph shown below). A large multi-million infrastructure grant recently approved ensures a significant upgrade to the wastewater plant to accommodate their growing population, from 7,800 residents in 1996 to the current estimate of 11,000 permanent residents in 2002. Whistler is Canada's fastest growing municipality and between the years 1996 to 2000 attracted over $381 million in construction investment.

With such significant growth in recent years and a strong reliance on tourism as a primary income source, the maintenance of world-class facilities including reliable potable water supplies and wastewater treatment facilities is essential.

In the past two years, the Resort Municipality of Whistler has successfully installed four Marsh-McBirney Multi-Mag flowmeters, (8", 10", 12", 14" diameter) and in the process has become a strong advocate of the product.  In particular, two recent installations of the Multi-Mag at the Whistler Resort highlight the significant advantage of Marsh McBirney's approach.  In November 2001, a ten-inch (10") Multi-Mag was installed at Spring Creek.  The unit was selected for its ability to be easily retrofit for a vertical pipe application without the traditional five to ten pipe diameters of straight run (sensor is circled in photo at left).  In fact, if a traditional flowmeter were to be installed, a basement would need to be constructed below the existing pump station at a significant infrastructure cost (estimated in the tens of thousands).  Consequently, the Multi-Mag was selected for its ease of installation, requiring only a two-inch hot tap, electrical wiring, and insertion of the monitoring probe.  The utilities crew and consultants on-site quickly identified the cost-savings and flexibility by going with the Multi-Mag approach.

In early 2002, the Whistler municipality selected an eight-inch (8") Multi-Mag Model 285 at the Emerald location (their fourth Multi-Mag to-date) for yet another application difficult for most flowmeters.  In this case, potable water flow monitoring was required for a short 30" length of pipe located close to a pipe bend.  Pre and post-installation photos of the Emerald installation are shown below.

The particular eight inch (8") underground pipe line shown above is located in a chamber with very tight space limitations. This main pipe accepts delivery of water from an interconnected maze of piping with numerous on-off valves and pipe bends and is driven by a series of up to three delivery pumps at one time. For this application, traditional flowmeters would be unworkable and once again, the Multi-Mag came to the rescue with a retrofit solution that was both cost-effective and easy to install. For Whistler, the Multi-Mag has become a reliable, and well-known tool for their flow monitoring applications.  According to Nelson Bastien, Utilities Supervisor (Resort Municipality of Whistler), "The Multi-Mag has successfully solved a lot of our difficult flow metering problems and we will continue to specify it to our crews and engineering consultants for our many future projects.  The Multi-Mag has sure proven itself to me!" - Nelson Bastien, Utilities Supervisor (Resort Municipality of Whistler) 

Written by: Winston Tang, M.A.Sc., P.Eng. - EST Environmental Technologies Ltd.

 

McCrometer Marsh Multi-Mag & Single Mag Products

Important Representation Update Effective April 2010:

EST Environmental Technologies Ltd. no longer represents, nor provides sales, service, or support for McCrometer Marsh Multi-Mag or Marsh Single Mag products for British Columbia or Alberta, effective April 6, 2010.

.We would like to thank our loyal customer base for their many years of patronage of these products.

Please contact McCrometer Inc. directly, for all current and future sales, service and support inquiries for the Marsh Multi-Mag and Single Mag products for British Columbia and Alberta.

.McCrometer Inc. can be contacted toll free at: 1-800-220-2279

External Web Link: >>> McCrometer Inc. Corporate Website / Contact Info