What Will Cost To Province Be?
When Will Westwood Lake Be Destroyed?
The decision that the dams in Colliery Park must meet a standard to withstand an event with one chance of happening in ten thousand years raises some serious questions as well as just boggling the mind.
It seems that as soon as the potential loss of life could exceed 100 souls it triggers the requirement that the dam must be built to a 1:10,000 year standard. Exactly how that standard can be calculated with any degree of accuracy seems a mystery to this mere mortal.
For comparison, schools are built to a 1:3,000 year standard which seems like a huge margin of safety and is considered acceptable by society when it comes to protecting our most valuable citizens.
Where did this number of 1:10,000 come from and how in heck do you know how many rocks or concrete or re-bar you have to use to withstand this mythical event? Do they use tea leaves or Ouija boards?
If this mythical standard is now being applied province wide, how many billions in funding will have to be re-directed from schools and hospitals and other infrastructure spending to satisfy the whim of some arbitrary standard of a government bureaucracy?
How Long Before Westwood Lake Goes?
The dam at Westwood Lake had some remedial work done a few years ago but certainly was not held to the 1:10,000 standard, nor was an inundation study done either.
When the same standard is applied to Westwood Lake Dam I am certain the cost will be so astronomical that this dam will also be removed in the interest of public safety as that seems the only standard the current crop of bureaucrats seems to understand.
Personally, I can sleep quite comforably if I feel there is only a single chance in 500 years I will die in my sleep as the result of some disaster. The idea the chance drops to a single chance in 3,000 years seems way over the top, and a single chance in 10,000 years just seems like nonsense.
It is all well and good for engineers and bureaucrats with way too much time on their hands to apply these mythical standards, but how many other services that we hold near and dear will have to be lost to pay for such standards?
With the provincial election coming up you may want to ask your favourite party/candidate just how they plan to pay for upgrading all provincial dams to withstand an event that they 'think' could occur once in every 10,000 years.
Thank you for this post...what a mess has been created by city staff because of their zeal to
ReplyDeleteget rid of the dams. Shame on them for the emotional and financial mess they have created.
has there ever been a criteria set to meet the city's standards, or is that beyond the city's fiction writing imagination and abilities.
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