Final Ice Jam-Flood Report To Be Delivered Monday

Saturday, May 23, 2009 06:18 AM

Prince George, B.C.- The final report by Northwest Hydraulic Consultants on flood risk evaluation and flood control solutions will be delivered to Prince George City Council on Monday night.

The report was commissioned following the ice jam flooding of 2008.

This report builds on the plans presented to Council in the summer of 2008. Those plans outlined a variety of options and the costs, risks and benefits of varying ideas from property expropriation to dredging the mouth of the Nechako.

The report to be presented Monday night will provide an historical review of flood events, hydrometric records, sediment transport, freshet design flows, freeze-up processes and ice-related water levels, identification of sediment sources, hydraulic analysis, design flood profiles, environmental considerations and regulatory aspects, as well as a list of flood control options for each of the property flood risk areas within the municipal boundary. The report will also present a cost estimate for the options.

Following receipt of the report and discussion, there will be public consultation on the report.

From those sessions, the report will have it’s options refined.

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Posted on Saturday, May 23, 2009 06:18 AM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: Eagleone on May 24 2009 5:43 AM

When one looks at the power of the Salmon River to remove meters high banks and carve whole new channels through the gravel... it makes one wonder why the Nechako has never yet done that to our downtown through its old channel?

Posted by: gus on May 24 2009 6:55 AM

I believe it is because there is no old channel. In modern history, it is a high water mark through percolation, not through channel flow. Water pops up at the east end of 2nd and third avenues every now and then not because of surface connection, but through percolation. There is no force to carve anything other than at the banks.

The "downtown" side is on the inside curve of the stream. That is the soils deposit side. It is Pulpmill Rd. that is on the side where there will be carving and needs to be protected.

Posted by: Eagleone on May 25 2009 6:38 AM

When Alexander Mackenzie came through PG the Nechako entered the Fraser through where the slough is today and not where the current mouth of the Nechako is... it wasn't until Simon Fraser came though that the Nechako entered the Fraser where it does today. Thus I would think it ran through the downtown because it would have had to if it exited at the slough. The geologists would know for sure though?

Posted by: gus on May 25 2009 2:17 PM

Eagleone, you wrote: "When Alexander Mackenzie came through PG the Nechako entered the Fraser through where the slough is today and not where the current mouth of the Nechako is"

I am certainly not an expert in this, but the linked site below states the following:

".. he established a camp near what is now Prince George. McKenzie was looking for a river route to the rich, fur trading areas on the coast. Somehow, Alexander missed the large Nechako River entering the Fraser from the west."
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~goudied/fraser-river-history.html

So how do we know that is where the Nechako entered the Fraser? Obviously not from McKenzie if he never even saw the river. Or is that a wrong account?

You then stated: "... it wasn't until Simon Fraser came though that the Nechako entered the Fraser where it does today."

Some 12 years later, McDougall travelled south, discovered the Nechako, and travelled up it. In 1806, Fraser abandoned McKenzies diaries due to their omissions.

So, how do we know that over the course of some 15 years, the Nechako either changed its mouth from south to north, or abandoned the south arm?