City staff favour $8 Million remedy
Anyone who has followed the Colliery Dam Debacle over the past year and a half are not likely surprised by the current recommendations being promoted by city staff who have sat on the Technical Committee. They seem to favour the most expensive and intrusive remediation possible mitigating against a flood of Biblical proportions, now that we know the dams will not collapse as a result of an earthquake.
Even if the 1:50,000 year flood were to occur and if both dams were to fail the additional damage would be less than one life lost, and $2.5 million in damages. Why spend $8 million to mitigate against this? Good question for council.
Under Al Kennings leadership, city taxpayers spent a cool million tax dollars for what now is proven to be totally inaccurate findings as to the effect an earthquake would have on the Colliery Dams. The previous engineering company claimed the dams were is very poor shape and could fail in three minutes, sending a wall of water crashing through Harewood resulting in as many as 150 deaths. Turns out, with proper testing and after another $1.35 million, we know that is simply not the case. However, it has now been decided we need to mitigate against a 1:34,000 yr. flood event. Really? What did we spend the million dollars for? Good question for council.
$3,000,000 Overtopping Proposal
Geo Stabilization International has proposed a $3million (or less) overtopping solution for both dams which for unexplained reasons city staff on the Technical Committee are recommending we not even consider. Really? Another good question for council. This is an international company completing over 1200 projects a year across North America making use the largest geohazard mitigation firm in North America.
In a written proposal to city council this firm is offering a solution that would save $5.1 million as compared to the Proposed Spillway option or $4.2+ Million savings, as compared to the alternative overtopping option, for the lower dam only.
Why this council seems unwilling to investigate this proposal is a good question for your councillor, it is also a good question for the city members of the technical committee, all of whom are non-engineers. In fact a good question to ask your councilors is just what are the qualifications of any of the city staff that are involved with this continuing saga?
What's wrong with City Staff that they are so eager to spend OUR money on highest-priced, most intrusive, park-destroying engineers? Who's doing the research? We pay City Staff to get the best deal for US, not throw away our money and our park. What hold do Staff have on the 5/9 Councillors & Mayor to make them follow Staff's recommendations without further thought? I think it's time City Hall was thoroughly purged.
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