Mountain View County is looking for some serious money from the province after the Red Deer River southwest of Sundre changed course earlier this year.The breakout was reported on June 30, with the river flowing into a northerly channel at a point about seven kilometres southwest of the town.Reports of water on range roads 61 and 60 alerted the county to the breach, operational services reported last Wednesday.ìUpon further investigation it was discovered that the Red Deer River had changed course and the water on the roads was a result of this,î the report said.Initially, water from the new channel ñ flowing up to half a kilometre north of the riverbed ñ migrated west to the gates of Coyote Creek Resort and filled the five culverts on the Sundre Airport property ì100 per cent full,î Reeve Paddy Munro told the Gazette last week.ìIn my opinion, less than two per cent of the river flow was going down the river channel,î Munro said.Within four days, the county constructed an armoured ìquad trailî to berm the new channel on private land about 1.5 kilometres west of the breach.ìAlberta Environment knew about it before and inspected it,î Munro said. ìThey've been cooperative.îThe armoured structure, Munro said, was effective in blocking the westward flow of water from the new channel, diverting it back to the main channel about two kilometres from the breach.But the downstream flooding threat remains a major concern ñ not only within the county but for Sundre as well, he said.ìThis is as real as it gets. Hopefully the province is going to come onside this fall.îLast week, council received a consultants report recommending the construction of a 4,190-metre berm along the north bank of the river in three stages to address the problem.The total cost with armouring is estimated at more than $2.5 million.ìTo me, stage one is a priority, but it comes down to a funding issue,î engineer Dave Cooper of Matrix Solutions told council.Without armouring, Cooper said, the first stage would cost about $600,000.While there was no decision on a course of action, Munro said measures have to be taken this fall to avert potential spring flooding.ìThat's the kind of pressure we're under. That river cannot go north.îMunro said a meeting with Environment Minister Rob Renner ìdid sound positive,î but deputy reeve Bruce Beattie told council he ìwould be very impressed if we're successful getting fundingî to do the work this fall.ìWe need the Town of Sundre, the RV and golf resort ñ we need them as part of this effort,î Beattie (Div. 4) said.ìThis has to be a joint approach so there's a recognition of the potential impact on Sundre.îCouncil directed CAO Tony Martens to research senior government funding ìand other opportunitiesî to deal with the problem.According to Munro, the northern channel has been dry since 1952, ìexcept for 2005 when it did some damage to county infrastructure. Rge. Rd. 55 had the most impact,î he said.As a result, the channel was full of 60-year-old trees when the breach occurred at the end of June.ìNow they're all gone. They were wiped out in four days.îThe new channel is now flowing at about half that volume, he said.
