Kamloops has a machine most of B.C. could use: a snow melter

A large yellow machine whirs in a parking lot at the Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops, ingesting heaps of snow and melting it into boiling water.

Colin Lyons, the CEO of Lyons Landscaping, has boughtwhat he believes to be theonly snow melter in B.C.

"Instead of having dump trucks haul snow continuously, we went, 'let's melt the snow on site'," said Lyons."What this essentially provides,is [being able to]melt the snow within 24 hours of it falling."

10 seconds

With a snow melter, they use a few small machines to make piles of snow, which they then run through the melter.

The snow melter takes about 15 to 20 minutes to start up. Once it gets going, snow is dumped into itand the machine starts to heat the water to melt it.

"Asit heats, itwill go into a low burn and then we can feed more snow," said John Pasteurwith Lyons Landscaping. "And [when] it cools off, it goes into high burn, and then it roars."

The machine uses a fan to aerate the inside and keep the water circulating, Pasteur told Daybreak North's Doug Herbert.

"Once it's all hot, normally it'll dissolve a bucket of snow in about 10 seconds," said Pasteur. "And just out the storm sewer and away you go."

Lyons said the City of Kamloops has given them permission to run the wastewater down storm drains, and the sand that's collected is filtered and then recycled at the end of the day.

Less machinery

Lyons said the snow melter requires a lot less machinery for snow removal.

"Typically to keep up with the snow machine we need six dump trucks," said Lyons."You see how busy it is [in the hospital parking lot] andthe last thing you want is dump trucks coming in and out of here."

Pasteursaid it is their first year using a snow melter, but they're liking it.

"It's been an experience for all of us, but it works just awesome," said Pasteur.

More melters

"I believe there's going to be a second [snow melter] comingto British Columbia. There might already be, but not that I know of," said Lyons. "I know we're the first ones."

He said snow melters are more popular in Eastern Canada and in the United States.

Lyons hopes to add a second one to their fleet next year.