by Bruce Anderson, Project Manager, Something Ventured, Ottawa, Ontario
Affordable floating covers for farm and community dugout reservoirs will be tested this spring at several Saskatchewan sites. Flamingo Plus (2000), a Canadian company, will contribute 30,000 sq. ft. of its cover systems so that SRC and PFRA may study the gains in water quality and quantity which result.
Past work by SRC's Water Quality Section has shown opaque floating covers can greatly reduce algal biomass formation. Much other work shows reflective covers can stop most of the evaporation losses of water. Apart from wasting scarce water supplies, evaporation also directly harms water quality by concentrating any dissolved contaminants. Prairie dugouts can lose up to one third or more of volume to evaporation each season.
Earlier efforts to use floating covers to improve water supplies at affordable cost have failed to en- dure wind, ice and sun. By contrast, prototypes of Flamingo's design have shown encouraging signs of wind and ice endurance, most recently in trials near Vanscoy, Saskatchewan (see photo).
If equally encouraging results are gained this year, Flamingo plans to accept a few commercial orders for Spring 94 installation. They welcome expressions of interest or any other views or comments that readers have on this development. Please address: B. Anderson, Project Manager, P.O. Box 4965, Stn. E., Ottawa K1S 5J1.