The Town of Oakville will spend at least $1.5 million to carry out an unscheduled dredging of Oakville Harbour after several vessels ran aground there during the previous boating season.
Council voted to pay this significant cost during its meeting on Jan. 27.
In a report to council, the town’s director of Parks and Open Space Chris Mark noted that on July 16 heavy rainfall resulted in a large amount of silt washing down Sixteen Mile Creek and into Oakville Harbour.
“Once the cleanup from the storm was completed, the town’s harbours section was inundated with calls about significant sediment in the harbour where a number of boats were running aground within the harbour where they normally did not just a week before,” said Mark in his report.
“Once all the docks and boats had been removed for the season, harbours staff completed a comprehensive bathymetry survey of Oakville Harbour to review the entire harbour for areas and depth of sediment deposition.”
Mark said the survey found that an estimated 8,900 cubic metres of sediment had settled in the harbour.
He concluded that the sediment would need to be removed by spring 2025 otherwise it would cause significant problems for many keel sailboats attempting to navigate the harbour, especially from late July onwards when lake levels typically drop.
The report argued that if left in place the silt deposits would not only impact town mooring customers, but also members of the Oakville Yacht Squadron and Oakville Club.
Oakville Harbour is typically dredged every 10 years with the next dredging scheduled to take place in two to three years.
Since town staff said the dredging cannot wait that long, they requested $1.5 million from the town’s Storm Event Reserve.
This reserve comes from the tax base and was established to fund unforeseen weather events.
The Storm Event Reserve presently has a balance of $5.48 million.
Mark pointed out the $1.5 million price tag may increase depending on the mobilization costs of the company doing the dredging and potential costs associated with getting rid of the silt once removed from the harbour.
The report noted the town has $325,000 in funds from previously approved dredge projects that staff will use if required.
During the council meeting Ward 3 Councillor Janet Haslett-Theall asked if any of the dredging could be covered by insurance.
Michael Mizzi, the town’s commissioner of Community Development, said that while some of the July 16 storm damage to the Oakville Harbour docks and other infrastructure was covered by insurance, the accumulation of silt in the harbour falls outside any kind of coverage.
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