We Just Don't Like To Look At The Real Cause Of Floods On The Nechako

Wednesday, September 22, 2010 03:45 AM

We are told that the Nechako flood plain must be raised, we have been told that the two floods that have occurred on the Nechako River , (both in the winter) were the result of an act of God , but never are we told that two occurrences took place each time this city has had a winter flood.

In the first flood of 1997, Alcan (Rio Tinto) released a surge of water during the beginning of December. The Nechako was frozen over as a result of an early cold snap.

Now without having the luxury of being an engineer, let’s just offer up some common sense. The burst of water, a flow that equalled the spring runoff, was sent down the river. Vanderhoof residents found themselves fighting ice jams and water spilling onto their streets and into their homes, which was followed by floods in the confluence of the Fraser and Nechako and some limited flooding of properties in the Morning Place, North Nechako Rd area.

Now if you put a lot of water in a pan with ice on it, the ice will float to the top, sort of an experiment usually conducted by children in their first kindergarten class.

So what happened in Prince George? Did those large chunks of ice cut into the bank by Miworth and upstream before jamming at the confluence of the Fraser and Nechako and causing further ice jams below the Nechako homes that were flooded?

The gravel and other sediment was carried down to a point where it no longer had the force of the water to contend with and settled. Did someone say mouth of the Nechako? The Fraser after all wasn’t flooding so the river current was slow and the sediment stopped at the mouth.

Now the next flood occurred when, surprise, surprise, Alcan Rio Tinto released another surge of water late in the season. The “engineers “ say that this water only contributed in a small way to the flood on the Nechako, but the flow meters in both Vanderhoof and Isle Pierre were not working properly so they couldn’t say for sure just how much water was introduced by the spilling of water from the Skins Lake Spillway, so they blamed "God".

So we got another major flow of ice and with it a new surge of sediments picked up by that ice as jams formed along the river as it followed its course to where the flow was slow where it was deposited, again, at the confluence of the Nechako and Fraser rivers.

So now we are setting about to possibly buy up the property along some of the lower reaches of the Nechako as a flood mitigation measure.

The province won’t buy in. They don’t and should not be involved in the purchase of land on which the City has allowed people to build. Makes perfect sense. Nor should the rest of the city taxpayers be called upon to purchase land and property to prevent a flood when the real reason for the floods has never been adequately addressed.

But did I forget to mention one minor detail? When the agreement was signed giving the majority of the flow of the Nechako to Alcan there was no provision in that agreement that allowed the Province to dictate when releases can be made.

In other words, Alcan (Rio Tinto) can maintain the dam at its peak level every fall and if for some reason we get an unusually wet fall, they can spill the excess water at any time during the winter and do so in order to protect the dam and the spillway.

Perhaps before we begin to introduce all sorts of mitigation measures and set about spending taxpayers money to buy up the river front property, we ought to call on the province to introduce some legislation that allows the province to dictate when the water can be spilled into the Nechako, but then we might not win the court case that would follow, and so we will blame the floods on God, failure to dredge the river, global warming and whatever and whoever we can pin the donkey tail on, without ever looking at the root cause of the problem.

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

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Posted on Wednesday, September 22, 2010 03:45 AM in Views by Ben Meisner

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Comments

Posted by: MiddleGround on September 22 2010 6:42 AM

Ben, your analysis is bang on from my perspective.

The problem is that because the flow meters were not working, if you suggest that Alcan (Rio Tinto) is at fault, the engineers refuse to even consider it. Other people remind you that making such statements publicly could land you in legal trouble with Alcan (Rio Tinto).

Perhaps the city should invest in their own flow meters? If the city could prove that the next ice jam/flood was caused by Alcan (Rio Tinto), would they be able to go after them for cost recovery?

Posted by: Andyfreeze on September 22 2010 7:56 AM

Right on Ben!
Who is watching the watchers?

Posted by: Eagleone on September 22 2010 8:09 AM

Very sound advice Ben. Better yet we should introduce a water tax on hydro production so as to enable the whole works to fall into the hands of BC Hydro, and then manage our rivers as a public resource and not a private corporations free money tree.

Posted by: billposer on September 22 2010 10:07 AM

Even in the absence of a contractual provision giving the province control over releases, I would be surprised if the province lacks the power to regulate release into public waters under existing environmental laws. I'd be very interested in seeing a legal opinion on this question.

Posted by: Junco on September 22 2010 10:25 AM

Bravo Ben! To have the audacity to make such statements is akin to stating that the Emperor wears no clothes.

It's obvious who is to blame for the floods, and it most certainly is not because of an act of God, but somewhere along the line everyone fell into line and participated in the subterfuge and no one will speak out. Our last Mayor didn't or couldn't stand up to the Company and our provincial government just looked the other way and forked out a few dollars after the fact to affected businesses and residences�must have been cheaper to throw some money at it that actually deal with the root cause.

Now what about all this money we have thrown at the problem????? River road and the berm cost us millions. If anyone in the city had any critical thinking skills or balls and had joined together in the first place flood #1 �Vanderhoof included and sounded the alarm and pointed the finger to the real culprit perhaps we'd be millions richer and have some control of our situation.

I grew up on the river and although it did occasionally flood on the Fraser near the trailer courts that were once on the banks and the Island cache during years of high runoff, it did not flood much else. Yes some years the water was high but it didn't breach the banks. To my knowledge planer row never flooded unless there was an ice jam. Once in the 70's an ice jam affected the area and there was the potential to flood these and other low lying areas but it resolved itself as the flow was not impacted as it was not artificially high. Many such events happened on the river over the years but they were basically non events as they sorted themselves out. Now with the last two major floods we have created a mindset in this City that this is the norm.

Confront the real cause and control the flow and we have no problems, but everyone seems to want to comment on how great the Emperor looks in his new finery and slap each other on the back at the official opening of River Road.

Posted by: doogood on September 23 2010 8:28 AM

Doesn't the Province at least have Environmental Mitigation requirements for the dam and the spillway. Sounds lake the released water creates sediment laden water which by standards is not acceptable. The turbitity of the downstream water should be monitored.