The announcement of upcoming model testing of a debris retention structure in Austria is the best news we’ve heard since the announcement of a $40 million pricetag for construction of one on Canmore’s Cougar Creek.
With millions already poured into area creeks (we like the Cash Cow Creek name recently used in a letter to the editor) for mitigation, the addition of a $40 million concrete structure that also may or may not ever be proven practical seems like a monumental cost.
While it’s difficult to argue with mitigation costs after the 2013 flood, many Canmorites, we know, eye the escalating cost of protecting the community with some trepidation. Further, when it’s clear the Bow River also needs upgraded protection structures, paying for flood protection will continue.
The trouble is, particularly with Cougar Creek, people love to live near water, developers love to build near water and, after a municipality approves massive development near water, when disaster strikes, what else can be done but spend money to mitigate?
The situation is little different than in areas where subdivisions are built into the forest, only to be razed by out of control wildfire. Once approved, the municipalities that approve should then be on the hook for some costs associated with ensuing disasters.
A few years back, when wildfire took hold near Kelowna, B.C., homes built into forest edges and topped with then-in-vogue cedar shakes went up in flames; to nobody’s surprise. The same situation exists in our mountain communities and wildfire experts have pointed out the unlikely combination of building into the forest then putting kindling on rooftops.
But back to our flood retention structure (page 9) that will imitate a dam ...
When it comes to testing the model of a $40 million project, we wonder if it proved to be a bust would it still go ahead? With $40 million in the balance, how successful would a model test need to be before construction starts in Cougar Creek?
Further to that, once the bed of a creek is completely made of concrete, as is now the case, is it still a creek? Perhaps Cougar Canal is now more properly descriptive. Anyone looking at it now would be hard pressed to call it a creek.
At any rate, at least once substantive model testing has been done with a scale model, Canmorites should be able to feel they’re getting some bang for their bucks. Trouble is, as with everything flood-related, the structure may never prove its worth once built. On the other hand, it could prove its worth the following year.
The raging creeks we witnessed in the area in 2013 showed that almost any water flow can be problematic, depending on the situation.
In moving forward, not only in the Bow Valley, but elsewhere in Alberta, we hope development proposals near bodies of water come under much greater scrutiny.
Still with mitigation; just to show the area isn’t done with the situation, Three Sisters Creek is now being identified (front page) as one where a berm needs to be installed to deflect possible future floodwaters. Like Cougar Canal, Three Sisters was also witness to a debris flood, though on a lesser scale.
And, if the tens of thousands that were poured into a sinkhole in Three Sisters are any indication, berm construction also won’t be cheap.
