Sundre's council recently agreed to send Alberta's minister of environment and parks a letter urging prompt action prior to high water levels in June.
Mayor Terry Leslie told council during the Feb. 8 meeting that he had been assigned to work on a draft letter with Coun. Myron Thompson, local MLA Jason Nixon and Bert Hamilton, a member of the community.
The essence of the letter, which as presented during the meeting was already in its second draft, was to implore the government to immediately take steps ahead of high water levels this June "to address the predictable, preventable disaster and threat of overland flooding of the Red Deer River upstream of Sundre," it read.
"It is not a matter of ëif' this disaster will happen, but ëwhen' it will happen."
The letter also outlined the fact that an overland flood could potentially contaminate drinking water for more than 250,000 downstream users of the river, including more than 30 municipalities.
"That is one of the consequences of no action," said Leslie.
"This is Her Majesty's river, and it is the responsibility of the provincial and federal governments to look after protecting people and property on that river."
Additionally, the letter points out that many municipal and provincial studies have been done and that there are known breakout areas west.
"Action is required in the next few months to ëretrain' river channels away from identified ëbreakout points' that threaten devastation to the Town of Sundre and our surrounding community, as well as contamination of drinking water for downstream users," the letter reads.
The mayor asked whether any members of council would like to make further changes to the letter, and barring none he requested a motion to approve the letter as presented "so that both Councillor Thompson and I can move forward with this in coming up with a plan that will lead us to further action prior to June."
Coun. Verna McFadden put on the table a motion to approve the letter's second draft as presented to council, opening the floor to further discussion.
Coun. Myron Thompson expressed a desire to add another sentence in the letter emphasizing the potential for Sundre to become "the next High River."
The councillor felt the letter should have "one more sentence in there somewhere to point out to them (the government) that the likelihood of Sundre existing under present conditions are slim to none."
Coun. Chris Vardas agreed there should be emphasis on the potential flood disaster looming over Sundre, but questioned whether High River should be mentioned.
"We keep bringing up High River; I'm sure they'd like to forget one day too," he said. The councillor didn't think it necessary to keep referring to a specific tragedy when council could simply express a concern to the government about "being the next disaster."
Also, High River was not the only municipality hit by the 2013 flood, added McFadden.
"It's just a thought, you guys are the wordsmiths. I'm just saying I don't know if I want to be bringing up somebody's sad point all the time," said Vardas.
"Every time you look, people are always mentioning that flood. If something drastic happened to me, I'd kind of almost like to try and slowly put it behind me."
Coun. Paul Isaac said the paragraph in the letter underscoring the impact of users downstream of the river is more likely to be the kind of information that would motivate the government to act.
"They all know that floods are going to happen. But the contamination downstream ó that, to me, is where I would put the emphasis," he said, going on to add that the cost of the impact of contaminated water for 250,000 users downstream represents a far greater cost than repairing the town.
Since a motion to approve the letter as presented in its second draft was on the table, the mayor asked council to proceed with a vote. If the motion did not pass and council wanted additional changes, Leslie said he could tweak the letter further.
"It's difficult to write a letter by committee ó that's the reason this is a couple of drafts in with some suggestions that have come forward," he said.
Isaac said he could endorse the letter as presented, but encouraged the mayor to make sure it is sent to multiple ministers and different parties.
Council carried the motion to approve the letter.
