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Steep creek flood risk a cause for concern

Editor: While most of the attention during the Canmore floods of 2013 was focused on Cougar Creek, I’d like to bring attention to a lesser known disaster that took place at the same time also causing damage to buildings.

Editor: While most of the attention during the Canmore floods of 2013 was focused on Cougar Creek, I’d like to bring attention to a lesser known disaster that took place at the same time also causing damage to buildings. Canmore locals are largely unaware that flooding was also happening at Silvertip.

At the time, I was living in a condominium building in Silvertip. A dry creek bed to the west of the condo filled with runoff and overflowed into the building. The cul-de-sac below became a river, complete with rapids. It was unbelievable that this dry creek bed transformed into a destructive earth moving force of water in a matter of minutes.

In the proposed rezoning of the Peaks Of Grassi for development (Peaks Landing), are we to believe that flood mitigations are a viable solution for allowing building in the flood risk sites? The Mayor and Council are advised that this is reasonable because there is no threat to loss of life even though the floodwaters could be up to .5m (1.5ft) deep.

Is this the standard we should be using after seeing the effectiveness of flood mitigations in the past?

Although not an expert on flood mitigation, I feel it accurate to say there is considerable uncertainty whether a particular flood mitigation is going to be effective because flood waters are so wild and unpredictable. It’s a gamble. The March 2016 BGC design report for a mitigation wall for Peaks Landing states: “The Town of Canmore has advised that the wall is intended to reduce the impacts of surface water flooding, but it is acceptable for the wall to be overwhelmed, outflanked, or destroyed.”

The proposed mitigations should not be relied upon for allowing building new homes such as in the Peaks Of Grassi (Peaks Landing) site.

Please, lets learn from our recent past.

Peter Guzman

Canmore

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