Calgary flood mitigation project list compiled to help secure provincial funding
CBC News | Posted: September 9, 2015 2:38 AM | Last Updated: September 9, 2015
'All 8 of them are vital,' says Mayor Naheed Nenshi about flood projects
The City of Calgary is working on a list of short-term flood resiliency projects that it wants help to pay for from the province.
- Flood mitigation should be prioritized, say Calgarians
- Calgary getting $15M from province for flood mitigation, asked for $50M
A council committee gave initial support to the list of eight projects on Tuesday.
The $50-million list includes plans for berms for the Bonnybrook Wastewater Treatment Plant and the Calgary Zoo, as well as a new pumping station to prevent storm drains from backing up into Sunnyside.
The province is dedicating $50 million a year for 10 years to help municipalities prepare for floods.
Mayor Naheed Nenshi says it's important to do this work while the city waits to hear from the province about flood mitigation projects upstream from Calgary.
"Stuff that regular citizens don't often think about, like making sure the wastewater treatment plant can still work during the flood is really, really important because otherwise you are going to end up dumping raw sewage into the river and communities downstream that are getting flooded will also have to deal with that so these things," he said. "All eight of them are vital. All eight of them are urgent."
City council will discuss the list of projects next week. The province wants municipalities to submit their lists by the end of the month.