Cleveland Dam reservoir is certainly low right now. Not this image low, thank goodness, and the rain is on its way ...... but
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| Metro created a 'blanket' to stop water from seeping out to the EAST, No solid rock there. |
The dam's water true depth (bottom) is lower than Burrard Inlet's
AI's answer:
It would take approximately 1.3 trillion flushes of toilets from all of Metro Vancouver to drain the Cleveland Dam, which holds about 75 million cubic meters of water, assuming each flush uses the maximum allowed 1.6 gallons. This calculation assumes the dam's water is the only water used for flushing toilets, which is not the case.
Here's a breakdown of the calculation:
Dam Water Volume:
The Cleveland Dam holds roughly 75 million cubic meters of water.
Convert to Gallons:
Since 1 cubic meter is approximately 264.172 gallons, the dam holds about 19.8 billion gallons of water (75,000,000 m³ * 264.172 gal/m³).
Toilet Flush Volume:
Modern toilets are required to use no more than 1.6 gallons per flush (GPF).
Calculate Flushes:
To drain the dam, you would need approximately 12.4 billion flushes (19.8 billion gallons / 1.6 GPF).
Metro Vancouver Toilets:
With a Metro Vancouver population of approximately 2.7 million (as of January 2025), and assuming each person flushes an average of 3.5 times per day (oooops!! 7 times), this equates to roughly 9.5 million flushes per day from the region's toilets.
Total Flushes Needed:
Therefore, it would take about 1.3 trillion flushes (75,000,000 m³ / 1.6 gal) to drain the dam.
Important Note: This is a theoretical calculation to illustrate the vast amount of water held by the dam compared to the volume of water used by a toilet. The water in the dam is a drinking water source for the region, not a source for flushing toilets
AI's suggestion? That Metro should have a separate source for toilets
To drain the 57.9 billion liters of water in Capilano Lake behind the Cleveland Dam, it would take a total of approximately 22.9 billion standard toilet flushes from all of Metro Vancouver's residential and commercial toilets. Calculation assumptions and methodology3.5 This calculation relies on several key estimates based on publicly available data. Volume of Cleveland Dam reservoir (Capilano Lake) Capacity: 57.9 billion liters. Total number of toilets in Metro Vancouver Residential: In 2021, the Metro Vancouver Regional District had 1,043,319 occupied private dwellings. Assuming an average of 2 toilets per household—one full bathroom and one half-bath—this equals 2,086,638 residential toilets.Commercial: In 2022, Metro Vancouver reported 1,338 office buildings with more than 10,000 square feet. While the number of toilets varies greatly by occupancy, an estimate can be derived from the number of buildings and regional population. Using a ratio of one commercial toilet per 100 people and a regional population of 2.64 million, there are approximately 26,400 commercial toilets.Total toilets: \(2,086,638(\text{residential})+26,400(\text{commercial})=2,113,038\) toilets. Volume per flush Older toilets (pre-1996): As much as 13 liters (3.5 US gallons).Modern low-flow toilets (1996 and after): 6 liters.Dual-flush toilets: 3 to 6 liters.Average flush volume: Using the modern standard, a flush of 6 liters is a reliable average for this calculation. Resulting calculation Total flushes from all toilets: \(57,900,000,000\text{\ liters}\div 6\text{\ liters\ per\ flush}\approx 9,650,000,000\) flushes.Number of flushes per toilet: \(9,650,000,000\div 2,113,038\text{\ toilets}\approx 4,567\) flushes per toilet. In summary, every toilet in Metro Vancouver would need to be flushed over 4,500 times to drain the reservoir. AI responses may include mistakes.
