Posted on June 3, 2021
A creek in Bright’s Grove clogged with sand that delayed the rescue of six teens without life jackets stranded on Lake Huron in late May will be dredged this year, Sarnia city council decided May 31.
The $300,000 dredging of Cow Creek, which will be done in two phases, was given the thumbs up in a unanimous vote. There was a second option on the table for council to defer the project to the 2022 capital budget deliberations, but all votes were cast in favour of going ahead this year.
“This needs to be addressed now,” said Mark Moran, a nearby resident pushing for the work to be carried out as soon as possible. “It’s not safe and it’s not going to fix itself.”
David Jackson, the city’s engineering and operations manager, said it will be a two-stage process due to permitting. Jackson said it’s “much” easier to get a permit to do minor dredging while staff work on getting approval for a subsequent full dredging.
“That will take a few more months,” he said, “so that’s why we want to set it up right now (with a minor dredging) for boating season as we work through the longer term process.”
Rob Williams, the city’s construction manager, previously said permitting was expected to take until the fall, with city staff proposing to scoop out some of the material in the interim and pile it on the property.
“At least maintain drainage and some recreational boating through the summer,” Williams said earlier this month.
Initial estimates were up to $1 million for the job if its sand was contaminated and needed to be trucked elsewhere, but testing – after council unanimously approved $50,000 for that late last year – revealed that wasn’t the case.
Moran, who spoke to council on behalf of more than 100 “concerned” residents, said the creek is completely blocked on “many, if not most,” days now and city engineering staff are aware of how “severe” the situation has become. Boats were “barely” able to get through around this time in 2020, he said.
“It was a constant danger to all watercraft,” Moran said, adding thousands of dollars in damage was inflicted, “but much more importantly, this is recognized as a safe harbour and there isn’t another one for a long distance.”
Moran also referenced the incident where six teenage girls with no life jackets were blown away on their inflatable rafts from the Lake Huron shoreline near Bright’s Grove and had to be rescued. There were no boaters or other recreational users on hand when the girls were thrust into harm’s way because of the buildup of sediment plugging the creek.
Two firefighters paddled out in a borrowed canoe while a resident got his personal watercraft from a neighbour’s garage, where it was being stored, and towed it to the water.
“This was bound to happen,” Moran said. “It was overdue and something like this will happen again.”
Coun. Margaret Bird agreed.
“That could have been far more serious than it was,” she said. “It was bad enough the way it happened because nobody could get out of the creek.”
Bird added there have been at least three incidents over the past couple of years, including a boat getting stuck in the sandbar and capsizing while another caught fire.
“Luckily everybody was OK,” Bird said. “I’m in full support for all of these reasons to fully dredge this creek now.”
The formerly three metre-deep creek, previously divested to the city by the federal government, has transformed into a new beach amid high water levels in recent years, Moran has said. People have been camping along the beach while kids are playing in the water, he said.
The backlog of sediment, though, is causing algae to form while flooding properties upstream and encouraging beavers to hew down trees, he said.
“It’s become the largest beach in Bright’s Grove,” Moran said. “It’s also the grossest beach around and should be posted as unfit for swimming.”
But the area – Moran said he prefers to call it Perch Creek – is a “hidden gem,” he added.
– with files from Tyler Kula and Paul Morden
