A month after presenting Alberta cabinet ministers Diana McQueen and Doug Griffiths with 160 letters calling for flood protection work along the Red Deer River, the Sundre-based Red Deer River Quality Control Committee has officially disbanded.
“I think we are extremely high at risk (of flooding) and I think something needs to be done,” said committee chairman and Sundre town councillor Myron Thompson. “I think we did about as good as we could as a committee.
“It was sure nice to see people do what they did, and that's the best that you can do. I just hope the province will take the efforts to heart.”
The committee was formed last year in an attempt to have the government address flooding concerns from west of Sundre to the Dickson Dam. High water in the spring of 2012 damaged private and public property along the river.
Members of the committee included representatives from Mountain View, Clearwater and Red Deer counties, as well as from the Town of Sundre and area residents.
As part of its efforts, the committee gathered 160 handwritten letters from residents calling on the government to take action. The committee hopes the province will take the letters to heart and free up money for flood protection work, including berms.
It was initially planned to present the letters to Premier Alison Redford, but in the event they were given to McQueen and Griffiths instead.
McQueen is minister of environment and Griffiths is minister of municipal affairs.
During the meeting with the committee, in Edmonton on March 5, McQueen and Griffiths told committee members that the government will be doing a flood risk assessment along the Red Deer River, which will, in turn, help to determine where the region is on the priority list for flood remediation work.
“We are hoping we can be fairly close to the top of the priority list but there are other problems around the province too and we have to realize that. If we're close enough to the top and the funding is available then we will have really succeeded,” Thompson said following the March 5 meeting.
During an interview last week, he added: “Now it's up to the government to make decisions. They told us that they are going to be doing risk assessments right away this spring. And from the risk assessments they will make a priority list. The first question I asked is where are we on the priority list?
“They are doing assessments in High River and Peace River and here and so on, and then they will say where we are on the priority list.”
It was not immediately known when the government plans to start the risk assessment work along the Red Deer River, he said.
As well as calling for berm construction, the committee was also pushing for a dam to be built upstream of Sundre as a flood protection measure.
That message was conveyed to McQueen and Griffiths during the recent meeting.
Asked if the committee may re-form if the government fails to take action to reduce the flood risk, Thompson replied: “That remains to be seen. I think there is always a possibility. They understand how serious the problem of flooding is to us and we expect some answers.”
Mountain View County has also been examining possible flood protection options, including the possibility of extending a berm constructed earlier south of the Sundre airport.
