In Search of Dollars For Shoring Up River Bank in Miworth

Friday, September 28, 2007 04:20 AM

Prince George and area MLA’s say they plan to meet with Solicitor General John Les today to try and see if residents of Miworth (who took it upon themselves to install rip rap to try and stop the erosion of the bank of the Nechako River) can be reimbursed for the cost of that work.

The residents are among those who had to move their homes when the spring freshet eroded the bank of the Nechako and their homes were on the brink of plunging into the river below. While the Province, has set aside some cash to help cover the cost of moving the homes away from the bank, there is no provision for covering the cost of the rip rap. “Funding for that kind of work is only available to a “Dyking Authority”, which means an engineered plan is being followed” says Jim Whyte , the Director of PEP.

According to Whyte, the Province will not fund personal attempts because of the lack of engineering “If the work is not engineered properly, they may just be deflecting or redirecting the problem elsewhere” says Whyte, and that raises the question of liability. If one neighbour installs “ bank protection” which then causes the river flow to change and impact someone else’s property further downstream, who carries the liability?

The homeowners are eligible for 50% of the cost of the moving of their homes, to a maximum Provincial contribution of $60 thousand dollars. Whyte says some payments have already been made under that program.

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Posted on Friday, September 28, 2007 04:20 AM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: giterdun on September 28 2007 7:57 AM

ALCAN SHOULD BE PAYING FOR THIS WORK ALONG WITH THE FLOOD DAMAGE IN VANDERHOOF. THIS FLOOD COULD HAVE BEEN AVOIDED.

Posted by: northman on September 28 2007 8:50 AM

Actually they had no choice but to relase through the nechako system. What happend is an avalance took out the transmission lines that carry power from the Kemano generating station to Kitimats Alcan smelter. So haveing this happen they could not run the turbine which normaly sends all that volume out to the ocean. The only option was to have a major flood or having the water rupture the kenny dam (which it almost did)and wiping all communitys along the Nechako Fraser systems off the map. Before the dam was built the water used to be aprox where the 7-11 is in vanderhoof on a normal freshet. Living close to a major water body its not a question of "if" your going to flooded but "when". In most cases its pretty unlikely Alcan will foot the bill for any damages unless their operations caused a major disastar.

Posted by: owl on September 28 2007 9:38 AM

"Actually they had no choice but to relase through the nechako system."

They may very well not have had a choice. However, someone else looking at it may see another choice. Choices one makes do not just start close the most recent precipitous event - a high flood year.

The first choice was deciding to build the diversion system in the first place. As far as I am concerned, they took on a whole set of liabilities. The most important for this purpose would be that they would not exceed a pre-dam 200 year flooding.

I haven't got the faintest clue of whether the flood this year was such a flood. I suspect not.

Scouring out of river waterways does not occur every year. Basically we can characterize them as 200 year events, 100 year events, 50 year events, decade events, etc. Each is less intrusive on the riverbanks than the previous.

I think it is fair to say that in recent history the banks in that region and that part of the curve in the riverflow were eroding on average of one foot per year, with some years being nil.

Given the recent weather, I would suspect there may not even have been a major event for some 30 year �. Then it gives way and 30 or 40 feet get taken from the banks �. Should be no surprise to anyone.

As I said before, I used to own lot 3 on Island Park Drive and I was planning to build a house about 150+ feet back from the bank. Had that taken place, I would not have had to move the house, but I certainly would have gotten involved much earlier in the push to get the toe of the bank prepared for such events. That really should have been the work of the subdivider.

The lots should have been at least 500 feet deep in my opinion with a forced set back requirement. And, in my case, that was not hindsight by any means. In the case of the subdivider, the Regional Distrcit should have asked for a geological report. But, that was back in the dark ages, and it was the regional district, not the City

;-)

Posted by: giterdun on September 28 2007 11:53 AM

ALCAN HAD NO CHOICE.....WRONG.
THE FOLLOWING COMMENTS ARE IN MY HUMBLE OPINION ONLY.... AFTER THE ABNORMAL SNOWFALL IN LATE OCTOBER THEY KNEW FULL WELL THAT WITH A NORMAL SNOWFALL ON TOP OF THAT,THEY WOULD BE IN TROUBLE.THEY COULD HAVE RELEASED MORE WATER LATE LAST FALL...THEY DIDN'T.
THEY COULD HAVE RELEASED MORE WATER IN THE EARLY SPRING...THEY DIDN'T. WATER IS THEIR STOCKPILE OF INVENTORY AND THEY ARE VERY PROTECTIVE OF THEIR CASH COW. THEY TRY TO MAINTAIN THE LEVEL AS HIGH AS POSSIBLE FOR OBVIOUS REASONS.IN MY HUMBLE OPINION THEY ARE TRYING TO CREATE A SENARIO THAT WILL HELP THEIR POSITION TO REVISIT THE KEMANO 2 PROJECT.ALL THEY WANT TO DO IS SELL POWER,THE PROFIT MARGIN IS HUGE.