Being that we live in an area where often little happens until a report, study, hearing, open house, forum, etc. occurs or is created, let’s hope that Canmore council’s offer of $600,000 to initiate a mountain creek flood mitigation plan is actually of use in the future.
In fact, one wonders what, after a 2008 hydrology report on Cougar Creek recommended mitigations that the province and CP Rail didn’t pay for – and therefore nothing was done – might happen after a new study and report are put together.
It’s unlikely Cougar Creek has changed much in five years and if $6.5 million in mitigation work was a stumbling block for the province and CP then, what might have changed since, other than possibly more focus being put on the issue of mountain creeks after the June flooding?
It’s not like we haven’t seen excavators parked near where Cougar Creek rushes under the Trans-Canada, we assume in anticipation of it spilling its banks if under-highway culverts are overwhelmed by debris.
And no longer should Cougar Creek be the sole focus of such a mitigation report. As we’ve now all seen, Carrot Creek in Banff, along with Jura, Pigeon and Exshaw creeks in the M.D. of Bighorn, can turn into waterbodies of mass destruction.
In fact, based on the extent of damage incurred by Exshaw and on the Trans-Canada, Bighorn and Parks Canada may want to pony up some funding for a mountain creek mitigation plan.
Yes, Cougar Creek may have been more manipulated by man in the past, but record rains turned most area creeks, including Heart and Stoneworks, into raging, destructive entities.
The thing is, work needs to continue while a report is being prepared, so the sooner some kind of report and plan is created, and acted upon, the better. As things stand, for example, Pigeon Creek in Bighorn, which blasted through Thunderstone Quarry, clogged culverts under and spilled over the Trans-Canada and damaged an off ramp into Dead Man’s Flats, now has less than a metre of clearance above the rock that has filled culverts.
It doesn’t take much imagination to picture another monster rainfall feeding Pigeon and causing similar damage.
Something that can’t happen is that the local situation falls into a pendulum state of flood, repair, flood, repair.
Just like in High River and Calgary, only millions, possibly billions, of dollars spent will ensure similar events don’t happen in future.
While much of the Province’s focus is on floodplains and recovery plans and differences between primary and secondary home ownership in those affected areas, clearly, plenty of thought needs to be put into the issue of our mountain creeks.
If nothing changes, as happened after release of the 2008 report, does everything now destroyed simply end up rebuilt to its former status and everyone keeps their fingers crossed? Hardly a plan.
Is another report put together, then ignored, then revived after another flood event? Do we wait until a tractor trailer unit or train hauling hazardous materials is swept off the TCH or railway by a flash flood with a spill into the Bow River then making its way throughout southern Alberta?
Or, as has arisen at a premiers’ meeting in Ontario, do things wait until, as Premier Alison Redford mentioned, the federal government puts up money for infrastructure and mitigation?
And let’s keep in mind, while creeks were the issue this time around, the Bow River was the recipient of all the creek runoff and rose accordingly. Possibly future flood planning should include increased diking along the might Bow, here and along its length.
