River Road Dike Plan Out of Date
Monday, February 6, 2012 @ 9:04 AM
Before the City Council of Prince George commits the taxpayers to a 280 grand payment for the next twenty years for flood mitigation they perhaps ought to make a few phone calls.
At first blush the diking of River Road looks like the Feds and Province will each contribute one third. That is the spin in any event. The true cost is 11.5 million with the Feds and Province kicking in 5.4 million that is under 50% of what the project will cost. That spin however is a bit like saying we are going to enjoy savings of “up to 10% “. It has a nice ring to it but look at this year’s tax bill to see the reality.
So back to the flood project and that phone call.
How about a call to Christy, or the head of Alcan, Madam Mayor before you spend our money. Ask them when the Kemano completion project is going to go ahead. You don’t have to be going to the Spuzzum Literary awards to see what is happening out there and what the plan is.
Premier Clark has just announced another LNG plant for Kitimat. They consume huge amounts of electricity. There are plans in the works for a third.
Rio Tinto (Alcan) is looking for workers to finish off the second tunnel. That’s the one that got canned when the threat of wiping out the fish in the Nechako was too much ior the government of the day to swallow. That second tunnel would take the majority of the remaining Nechako River and divert it into the ocean at Kemano. No water, no threat of flooding.
The second part of the puzzle is the fact that Rio Tinto (Alcan) has just finished a deal with the Cheslatta who were a major stumbling block in the last go round.
Highway 37 needs power for the mines in the north, so where does all the power come from to run these LNG plants?
Indeed a portion will come from the Alberta folks who are building a run of river power project up there. That simply isn’t enough and with a proposal to build a fourth LNG plant in the planning stages at Salmon Valley, Site C is not going to do it.
So back to square one where you begin to connect all the dots and there it is for everyone to see. Do you really think that Rio Tinto is going to spend several hundred million for a backup to their power operations in Kitimat? They haven’t needed a backup for the past 60 years, why now?
The city Engineering people still have a hard time getting their minds around the fact that when we have had a flood it came on the heels of Rio Tinto (Alcan) releasing a major flow into the Nechako.
If you have only a trickle of water in the Nechako, well then why do you need flood mitigation and more over why do you need to spend the taxpayer’s money? If there is this major interest to save money as is being suggested then let’s start with why we are spending money on a problem that shortly won’t exist?
I’m Meisner and that’s one man’s opinion.
Comments
Seems to me that the present council has inherited this project. Is there hope that they could veto this dumb idea..
cheers
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on to something here ben. More water to create power would mean less flow this way which obviously would have an impact on the likelyhood of flooding. The mayor should at least ask her corporate backers the question before kicking in millions of our tax dollars for a dike that might not be needed.
Or you could just dredge the river and all this would go away at a mere fraction of the cost. Diking will only stop the flow of surface water but when the level gets higher then the height of land the water will still seep up and create problems. If we stop the water from getting that high by giving to an area to flow all these problems go away.
I agree with Ben 100%. There is more to the Alcan situation than meets the eye.
In addition I beleive that dredging is the answer. At least we could try it. The worst case scenario would be that we would have a surplus of gravel.
If dredging did work, then we would save millions.
Oh;;;; Right, then we wouldnt get the matching funds, and we couldnt hire our buddies to build the dyke and make millions in profit.
Hows that Airport Runway Expansion doing???
Mr. Meisner:
I agree with your predictions and observations on this topic;
What will the impact be for the fish?
including salmon returning to spawn.
Hard to predict the answer of course because we do not know how much water will be released for the Nechako after the second tunnel is completed and commissioned, but I sure hope somone in power is considering all potential impacts.
metalman.
The City caused most of the problem with the last flood. The flood water was trying to flow into the river when the City put up the dykes. Working on one property you could see the water bubbling up from the ground & flow towards the river only to be stopped by the dykes.
The first time the City used the dykes was the spring before the last flood. They put the dykes up on a low spot on River Rd on the River side. Those of us who worked in the area phoned the City and told them that the water came up from the CN side and the dyke would prevent the flow to the river. We were told we did not know what we were talking about, but after the road was under water they put up dykes on the CN side and then spent the rest of the season pumping the water off the road every time it rained.
Wonder if a person can get mineral rights for under the river, could be some gold there if they ever decided to dredge it.
Ben, you are making too much sense, again!
Wasn’t Alcan paid a princely sum of money by Harcourt/Clark to forego Phase Two of the Kemano project? I seem to remember that the government of the day dug deep into the taxpayers’ pockets to make that deal.
Now, that the cost sharing money has arrived and the prospect of temporary prosperity is on the horizon (if only the rest of the money is quickly borrowed) who will stop them to take another sober look at the situation like you are suggesting?
The pressure is on, the outcome is highly predictable! The $5.4 million won’t be returned.
But. There is Gold at the confluence of the Nechako and Fraser Rivers. People have been panning it on and off for years.
I bet there is gold where the ball diamonds and running track are located….
That’s not where it was hidden.
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