BIGHORN – A report examining the June groundwater flooding in Exshaw has yet to come to council.
Earlier this year, MD of Bighorn council approved hiring a hydrogeologist after homes in the east end of Exshaw were unexpectedly flooded with high groundwater levels. Dozens of residents spent weeks pumping thousands of litres of water from their basements, with some estimating up to 50 centimetres of groundwater in the homes.
The hydrogeologist was hired right after homes started flooding to help understand what was causing the unusually high groundwater levels. The report was originally expected to come before council in July, then was announced to be ready for August.
Now into the first week of September, officials said they are expecting an update at Tuesday's (Sept. 8) council meeting.
"It is my understanding, the CAO will be making some comments publicly to the hydrogeologist report to date on Tuesday," Cooper said.
"The water report was anticipated earlier ... [but] part of the scope included the recommendations for mitigations, if possible, for affected houses and streets and, it is my understanding, that takes a little more to study than how we flooded."
Key questions for the hydrogeologist to investigate included:
• What caused the unusually high groundwater levels in east Exshaw?
• Is the Exshaw Creek flood mitigation structure a cause of the high groundwater levels?
• What could be done to mitigate the groundwater problem?
• What would be the estimated cost of this mitigation?
During the June council meeting, Bighorn CAO Rob Ellis noted the hydrogeologist was independent of the engineers behind the Exshaw Creek design and mitigation work, as many residents voiced concerns about the recently completed flood mitigation work done as a possible cause of the groundwater flood. At the time, Reeve Cooper said it was "highly unlikely [but] not impossible."
Since the flooding, the MD of Bighorn has applied for the province's Disaster Recovery Program (DRP) in the hopes of helping residents recovers costs from uninsurable damages, while also exploring providing municipal tax relief for the homes affected.
In May, council approved the 2020 Tax Rate bylaw, which included a 2.8 per cent decrease in the municipal residential tax rate and the 2.3 per cent decrease in the non-residential municipal tax rate.
