Flooding On The Nechako- Round And Round We Go Where We Stop We Do Not Know

By Ben Meisner

There are several items that must be dealt with when we are talking about flood mitigation in Prince George.

For one ,those who chose to build along the river did so with their own risk in mind.  It is not the duty of the people in the balance of the city, province or country to buy out their homes.

Anyone who builds along a water course knows full well there are risks attached with that. Keep in mind also that the province or the feds have no interest in paying for homes or businesses along the river’s edge.

The city should take some time to ask them, and they will be told that it opens a whole new can of worms, do it in Prince George and why not in every other province or city in Canada that faces the same problem?

There is however one area that the flood experts have missed or have chosen to ignore and that is that every time we have had a winter flood, (or summer flood in the case of Vanderhoof) it came as a result of Alcan releasing a huge amount of water into the Nechako.

It is rather interesting that the first winter flood came about when the company spilled a  large amount of water in November and we got a flood. Alcan (Rio Tinto) doesn’t have the ability to spill water other than that diverted through the turbines into the Kemano River and so, it is flushed into the Nechako.

A couple of years ago we had another flood , it was blamed on high water.  The experts say  Alcan wasn't to blame, but it is interesting to note that the spill way was open and sending several hundred cubic meters of water into a frozen river  2 weeks before the flood in PG. The river was extremely high just before the flood and ice took hold, but the company said it was an act of God. To date I have never seen anyone look at this.

Then again the same hydrology company who oversaw the ice jam flooding of 07/08 worked for Alcan for many years, and while you can’t draw any conclusions, it raises an interesting question.

Alcan (Rio Tinto) can, as a result of their license, dump as much water into the Nechako when and as they want. The only difference between Alcan and BC Hydro is that Hydro has legislation protecting it from being sued for causing a flood. Alcan does not enjoy the same relief.

But we will continue to go round and round without ever looking for the solution to our problem. It would make perfect sense that government should call upon Alcan to build a separate diversion to allow water into the Kemano system to prevent flooding such as occurred in Vanderhoof and PG. Problem is that so far no one has had the jam to act.

I’m Meisner and that’s one man’s opinion.

Email | Print | Facebook | Twitter | Digg | Del.icio.us