Posted on November 14, 2017
By Ron Seymour, The Daily Courier
Cleanup and repair costs associated with flooding in West Kelowna earlier this year have been put at $5.2 million.
Local taxpayers will be on the hook for 20 per cent of the total, or just over $1 million.
The list of 45 flood recovery projects includes fixing buckled pavement, rebuilding failed waterfront retaining walls, unclogging stormwater pipes and dredging silt and other debris from creeks to protect bridges.
“Two city creeks, Powers and Smith, have had a considerable amount of (sediment) in the lower reaches, which has reduced the water holding capacity and increased the potential for a reoccurrence with even normal flows next year,” reads part of a staff report going to city council Tuesday.
“This potentially puts city infrastructure, mainly bridges, at risk and helps form the priority of works needed and the time window to complete it,” the report states.
Immediate flood response costs — for such things as sandbagging — are fully covered by the provincial government. Victoria also covers 80 per cent of after-flood recovery costs, those required for repairing damaged infrastructure.
About one-third of the identified projects have already been approved by the provincial government, with most of the rest requiring some followup engineering or environmental assessment.
Some of the most expensive flood recovery projects include $1 million for dredging excess sediment from the Powers Creek water treatment plant intake pipe, $500,000 for dredging of McDougall Creek and $140,000 for repairs to asphalt on various roads in low-lying areas.
The staff report to council says 300,000 sandbags were used just in the neighbourhood of Green Bay, which has West Kelowna’s lowest elevation.
“To avoid the evacuation of Green Bay mobile home park, a sheet pile wall was installed and the channel adjacent to homes was continuously pumped back into the lake,” the report says.
Okanagan Lake peaked in mid-June at 343.25 metres above sea level, an all-time high.
Source: The Daily Courier
