The provincial government has approved more than $4 million in grants for the MD of Bighorn to study the hazards of creeks that flooded last June and provide some short-term mitigation.
Reeve Dene Cooper called the approval of the funds through the 2013 erosion control program very good news.
“It is no longer time to wait, it is time to get things done,” Cooper said Monday (March 10). “We have to be informed by science and then we have to bring the environment, society and engineering all to a functional whole.”
While above average temperatures have begun to melt the snow in the valley bottoms, Cooper pointed out the freshet, or spring runoff, is still to come.
“I’m not sure when the freshet will come – it could come as early as April, it could come as late as July – so the longer it takes, the better prepared we will be,” he said.
The provincial money will go towards detailed hazard and risk assessments of Exshaw Creek ($273,414), Jura Creek ($195,352), Grotto Creek ($214,916) and Heart Creek ($241,932) by BGC Engineering.
It also includes $2 million for short-term mitigation on Pigeon Creek by EBA Tetratech and a short-term mitigation assessment and study by Matrix Engineering for $929,342 in Harvie Heights. A long-term detailed hazard and risk assessment in that hamlet will be completed by BGC for $209,044.
Cooper said over the past eight months he has spent the equivalent of five annual budgets for the municipal district and there is no end in sight.
“I think everybody was seriously overwhelmed,” he said. “I think really good people have been worked to the bone. I don’t think we have taken the pain away and I don’t think we could possibly have gone fast enough. But we have all worked hard to get to where we are at and is more needed? Yes it is.”
