The British Columbia city of Merritt lies about three hours northeast of Vancouver and sits in a valley at the confluence of the Coldwater and Nicola rivers.
In recent years, the area has been prone to severe flooding. In May 2017, high rainfall sent the Nicola River over its banks, inundating city streets and properties.Then as now, Kevin Vilac was chief operator of the city’s water and wastewater systems. As the water rose during that 2017 flood, Vilac and his staff faced a serious problem.“We had a lot of inflow and infiltration due to overland flooding,” he recalls. “With that we
