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Drone Leak Investigation · Northern BC

Reservoir & Dam Seepage Detection in Prince George, BC

Thermal and visual reconnaissance of earthen dams, dikes, reservoirs, and embankments — seepage exit points, wet zones on downstream faces, and anomalous vegetation mapped without crews walking unstable slopes. Flown by Transport Canada-certified RPAS pilots and confirmed by the ground crews serving Prince George and the Northern BC region — since 1999 as BC's leak detection specialists.

640×512
Radiometric resolution
Full face
Embankment coverage per flight
0 contact
Crew exposure on slopes

Free phone consult · No pressure · Mon–Sat 8am–6pm PT

Flying Prince George: local context

Northern capital with pulp, energy, and institutional campuses — industrial thermal work anchors the book; YXS airspace per authorization.

Local property profile: Northern capital — industrial sites, university and hospital campuses, and postwar neighbourhoods with deep-buried frost-protected services.

Ground conditions: Northern clays are depth-limiting when wet and frost-bound in winter — survey windows and antenna choice matter. Shallow services still image reliably year-round.

Typical reservoir & dam seepage detection work around Prince George

  • Pulp-mill asset scans
  • Campus roof programs
  • Earthen dams and saddle dams
  • Dikes and flood-protection embankments
  • Water supply and irrigation reservoirs

How the Prince George survey runs

  1. 1

    Structure briefing

    Drawings, prior inspection reports, and known wet areas frame the survey. We coordinate with the owner's dam-safety engineer so the data lands inside their existing surveillance program.

  2. 2

    Thermal face mapping

    Groundwater and seepage water hold a stable temperature year-round while surfaces swing with the weather — exit points and wet zones contrast clearly in the right window. The full downstream face, abutments, and toe are mapped in one flight.

  3. 3

    Visual + vegetation pass

    High-resolution visual imagery captures the classic secondary indicators: preferentially green vegetation strips, cattail colonisation, soft-ground texture, and animal-burrow activity along the toe.

  4. 4

    Georeferenced report

    Thermal anomalies and visual indicators plotted on the structure, compared against any previous survey, and delivered in a format your engineer-of-record can take straight into the surveillance file.

Prince George questions, answered

How does thermal imaging find seepage on a dam?

Seepage water originates underground, where temperature is stable — roughly 8–12 °C in much of BC — while the embankment surface follows air temperature. In warm weather a seep reads cold against the face; in cold snaps it reads warm. Flown in the right contrast window, exit points and saturated zones stand out measurably, including early-stage wet areas a walking inspection can miss.

Does this replace our dam safety inspections?

No, and we will not pretend otherwise. BC dam owners operate under the Dam Safety Regulation with defined surveillance obligations run by their engineer-of-record. What we provide is reconnaissance data — full-face, repeatable, georeferenced — that makes those inspections better targeted, and a safe way to look at faces and toes that are hazardous to walk.

Can you survey dikes and flood embankments too?

Yes — linear flood-protection works are ideal drone subjects: long, uniform, and tedious to walk. Kilometres of dike face and toe are mapped per flight day, with anomalies geotagged for follow-up. Post-freshet and post-storm baselines are the common triggers in BC.

Can you legally fly drone leak surveys in Prince George?

Yes — our pilots hold Transport Canada RPAS certification with advanced-operations capability, and Prince George flights run under whatever airspace authorizations the location requires. Northern capital with pulp, energy, and institutional campuses — industrial thermal work anchors the book; YXS airspace per authorization. Flight planning, NOTAM checks, and authorizations are part of the service, not your problem.

How do Prince George ground conditions affect what the survey reads?

Prince George ground is predominantly glaciolacustrine clays and silts of the Nechako plateau. Northern clays are depth-limiting when wet and frost-bound in winter — survey windows and antenna choice matter. Shallow services still image reliably year-round. For buried-leak work that matters: escaping water changes the moisture and thermal behaviour of exactly that ground, and our analysts interpret the surface signal against the local soil character — then our acoustic ground crews confirm the suspect zones before anyone digs.

What does reservoir & dam seepage detection cost in Prince George?

Province-wide pricing — no regional premium for Prince George. Single-site surveys typically start in the high hundreds; network corridors, portfolios, and multi-asset programs are quoted by scope. The free phone consult (604-239-9934) produces a firm number in about five minutes.

Need reservoir & dam seepage detection in Prince George?

Free phone consult — site, access, airspace, and a firm quote in five minutes. No pressure.

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