Unsuccessful two years ago in lining up grants to finance work to ease the problem of seasonal flooding of the Silverthorne Creek drainage area, the District of Houston is trying once more.
This time it is applying for up to $2 million from a Union of BC Municipalities program aimed at reducing the risk of natural disasters.
Two years ago the District lost out on a chance of getting just under $1.9 million from a federal/provincial program when too many applications were received for the amount of money available.
The District would have added $500,000 of its own money and the resulting $2.4 million would have been spent on a series of measures recommended by an extensive report commissioned in 2018.
The report indicated spring flooding events have been increasing since 1997 because two existing systems to drain waters can’t handle the flows from snowmelt to the Bulkley River.
Culverts were blocked and ditches compromised, the study said of problems impeding proper drainage.
Backing up that earlier report is an updated flood mapping report and modelling to identify risks and more ways to ease flood risks and this latter report will form the basis for the new grant application.
The earlier study noted that two flooding events in 2017 and 2018 resulted in flooding of Finning Canada’s property, flooding of Monster Industries property, water flowing over CN tracks, and flooding of the Morice River Forest Service Road.
Specifically, the study outlined what it called “probable seasonal inundation of septic systems at the Silverthorne Trailer Park, home to approximately 25 residential manufactured homes.”
“There have been no reported problems, however the regulatory requirements for these septic systems to lie above the 25-year flood event is almost certainly not being met,” the study noted.
It said there’s a potential for contamination of local wells, including those at the trailer park.
One option sketched out for council to pursue would involve running drainage pipes under both the CN Rail line and the second crossing of a CN Rail spur line and the Morice River Road.
Construction of a berm at Monster Industries would also be an option as would work to connect Oxbow Lake to a reclaimed gravel pit with an outlet control installation at the northwest outlet to the gravel pit and construction of upgraded channel between this location and the Morice River Road.