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Campaign ends Pennies for Presents fundraiser wraps up tomorrow. PAGE 17 Alice’s world Nanaimo Theatre Group stages traditional pantomime. PAGE B1 Hoop dreams Annual preview of high school basketball teams. PAGE 3
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THURSDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2012
VOL. 24, NO. 100
P: 250.585.1648 3392 Norwell Drive
Opposition forces council to explore Colliery options I CITY STAFFF to meet with residents bent on saving dams. BY TOBY GORMAN THE NEWS BULLETIN
Christmas feast Brianna Deimert, 7-10 Club bookkeeper, left, and Gord Fuller, club chairman, show some of what’s on the menu for the club’s fourth annual Christmas morning breakfast. The Salvation Army, Nanaimo Seventh-Day Adventist Church and Together We Can are also serving meals and hosting Christmas Day activities. For the full story, please see page 5. CHRIS BUSH/THE NEWS BULLETIN
A flood of new information by a community group intent on saving two dams at Colliery Dam Park has resulted in city council agreeing to explore options other than removal. In early November, city council decided in camera to remove the two dams and drain the lakes at the park because of the potential threat to human life posed in the event of an earthquake or extreme rainfall. That decision drew heavy criticism from the community which views the park as a south end jewel, and resulted in the formation of Save the Colliery Dams representatives, a group of residents who want to see other options explored. On Monday, members of the group presented city council with options they say they feel the city didn’t adequately consider before deciding to remove the dams and, in their view, ruin the park. Council responded by agreeing to direct city staff engineers to explore options for dam rehabilitation, repair or replace-
ment, an exercise that will cost as much as $60,000 and take at least six months to complete. The lakes were scheduled to be drained and the dams removed next summer when water flow is expected to be at its lowest. The deconstruction cost is estimated at $7 million. Lorne Gale, an engineer with a doctorate in fluid dynamics surface chemistry, and member of Save the Colliery Dams, provided council with alternatives to removal and cost estimates for mitigating the threat in the event of a natural anomaly. Gale suggested the dams could be rehabilitated enough to reduce the risk at a cost of $500,000 each, with the spillways being upgraded to handle a 1,000-year rain event, enough to reduce the threat of a breach from the Dam Safety Branch’s ‘extreme’ rating to ‘high’. “The total cost would be about $3 million and it wouldn’t be that difficult a task to do,” said Gale. “The risk can be mitigated at a substantially less cost than to remove them, and we get to retain a jewel in our city. Is that not a reasonable solution?” Other ideas also came forward, such as generating power at the site, a possibility that could also produce revenue and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. ◆ See ‘COUNCIL’ /4
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