LAC DES ARCS – Five years after devastating floods damaged property throughout the Bow Valley, residents in Lac Des Arcs are still waiting to see long-term flood mitigation work completed on Heart Creek.
The $3.9 million project has been fully funded since 2016, however according to the province, there are several outstanding engineering concerns that still need to be addressed.
“Alberta Transportation is generally supportive of the MD’s proposed flood mitigation plans. However, there are potential concerns about flood water backing up and flooding the Trans-Canada Highway and whether an existing culvert to the east of the project could handle a surge of flood water,” wrote Matt Dykstra, the press secretary for the minister of environment and parks.
“We continue to work with the MD and its consultant to address those concerns. In the meantime, no time frame has been determined for the project.”
Reeve Dene Cooper empathized with residents in Lac Des Arcs, adding, as far as he was aware, all of the engineering concerns have been addressed.
“It is unfortunate and untenable, in every aspect, that Heart Creek remains delayed. Like Jura Creek Phase I, this build should be completed at this point,” wrote Cooper.
“Our contractors indicate that Alberta Transportation and Alberta Environment and Parks concerns regarding the Heart Creek mitigations have been addressed.”
In order to get shovels in the ground, he said the MD is actively working with the province to try and begin work on Heart Creek at the same time as work begins in 2019 on Exshaw Creek, which received funding earlier this year.
“It is in the public interest that these projects – Exshaw Creek and Heart Creek – both be achieved in 2019 without any further delay,” wrote Cooper. “The projects are equally as important, but not equally as complex, so the Heart Creek mitigation should easily be built within one building season.”
He said it is critical that both projects are done at the same time because Heart Creek and Exshaw Creek intersect the Bow River near the same spot and if Heart Creek floods it will damage the industrial area in Exshaw and if Exshaw Creek floods it will erode the banks of the Bow River in Lac Des Arcs.
“It is very important that both of these projects are harmonized and that they get underway,” said Cooper. “We will not be able to protect these communities if we have one of the projects without the other.”
Norm Dreger, president of the Lac Des Arcs Community Association, said residents understand projects of this magnitude can take some time, but with each passing year they are growing concerned the project might never get done.
“We get it, but we are also anxious that it doesn’t drag on,” said Dreger. “This happened in 2013 and here we are five years later, so even if you started the work now it’s one of those projects that takes quite a while.”
With so much uncertainly surrounding the project, he said he reached out to MLA Cam Westhead to make sure the money provided by the province won’t dry up if a new government is elected in the spring.
“I was reassured that although there’s been some extensions from when the provincial funds were approved that they are in fact reserved for this work,” said Dreger. “It will not disappear.”
In Feb. 2016, the province announced it would provide $3.3 million to reduce the risk of flooding along Heart Creek as part of its Alberta Community Resilience Program. The MD also agreed to set aside $570,000 as part of the funding agreement.
Coun. Lisa Rosvold, who represents the community, said she is cautiously optimistic that the project will get started in 2019.
“The residents are quite concerned since nothing has progressed since the 2013 flood and they want to be able to sleep easy next spring and every other spring after that.”
