Sooke Flowline

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Sooke Flowline
A section of the Sooke Flowline
Begins	Sooke Lake Reservoir
Ends	Humpback Lake, Sooke Hills Regional Park Reserve
Official name	Sooke Flowline/Aqueduct
Owner	CRD Water District
Characteristics
Total length	44 km (27 mi)
Diameter	1.07 m (3 ft 6 in)
History
Construction start	1913
Opened	1915-1970 (East section) 1915-2009 (North Section)

The Sooke Flowline is an abandoned 44-kilometre (27 mi) concrete aqueduct that snakes through the Sooke Hills from Sooke Lake to the Humpback Reservoir, near Mount Wells Regional Park, in British Columbia, Canada. From this reservoir, a buried, riveted steel pressure main transported water to Victoria. Between 1994 and 2007, this main was replaced, since it was long past its useful life.^[1] The flowline was vital to the continued growth of the city of Victoria, as it provided a reliable water supply. While the flowline remains, Victoria's water supply is now carried via Kapoor Tunnel. Leigh Hodgetts, CRD Waterworks superintendent, reported that the westernmost section of the flowline is still used to carry Sooke's water supply, via a 16-inch interconnecting pipe feeding the Sooke distribution system from Charters Creek to Sooke River Road.^[2]

Elk Lake used to be the water supply for Victoria, and when the Colquitz River was dammed, it flooded the swamp and merged Elk and Beaver lakes. In the early 1900s, it was determined that Elk/Beaver Lake could no longer meet Victoria's water needs. The daily draw from the lake was too great, and despite measures taken to extend its useful life, such as filter ponds, the pressure and supply was too low, and sediment and amphibians were getting drawn out through the lake's intake.^[3]