The City of Kelowna has installed six floating bio-islands in a Glenmore pond to improve the water quality.
Measuring two metres by four metres, each floating island is made of a plastic material equipped with about 80 holes that will hold a variety of plants in Redlich Pond.
Those plants will include sandbar willow, soft-stemmed bulrush, small-flowered bulrush and beaked sedge.
Located in Old Glenmore, the pond was originally a wetland on an orchard property before being added to the stormwater infrastructure when the area was developed.
The pond has since been naturalized and all six of the floating islands will be linked together to help further treat stormwater runoff before it hits Brandt's Creek and eventually Okanagan Lake.
“Redlich Pond receives water run-off from the lower Glenmore neighbourhood, parts of Clifton Road as well as surrounding neighbourhoods,” says Jason Jenson, the City of Kelowna’s infrastructure delivery design technician.
“The floating bio-islands contain plants that are designed to provide additional passive biological remediation.”
The city explains that they will be positioned in the centre of the pond and in water deep enough to ensure they do not impact flows or disturb the pond environment.
The islands only take up about 1% of the total pond surface.
The city will continue to test stormwater in the area to measure success and adjust as needed.
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