New assessment points out Bruderheim drainage deficiencies

BY JOHN MATHER

Bruderheim Town Council was given its first update on its Regional Stormwater Management Assessment during its Jan. 18 regular meeting.

Representatives from engineering firm MBE were on hand to guide the presentation which was presented virtually by Taylor Mara.

Mara broke her presentation into several parts, an overview of the initial work completed, the existing model results, proposed improvements and conclusions and recommendations.

Mike Dowhun from MBE presented at the meeting.

The Town had received a grant to proceed with the initial study and also had support from the County of Lamont, CAO Patty Podoborozny told council.

“This assessment provides data on identified areas of concern for stormwater management and costs associated with it for council’s consideration,” she said.

She added the assessment would be used for future budget and planning considerations and it would be shared with Lamont County.

“We’ve prepared a summary,” said Dowhun and he added Mara was one of the MBE’s stormwater experts located in Calgary.

Council was shown maps showing drainage areas both within the town boundaries and in the surrounding area of the town in the County of Lamont.

Mara said site assessments were done on the drainage areas noting where culverts and ditches were located and then studying the actual drainage courses in the area.

Mayor Karl Hauch asked if culverts under the CN tracks in town were the responsibility of the Town or the railway.

He was told that in most cases it was the Town’s responsibility.

“The Town does have a large catchment area,” said Mara. “Some utilize a lot of Town infrastructure while other drainages utilize very lit- tle.”

The engineering firm found the area north of the Canadian Rockies Hemp site was the most concerning “as ponding impacts buildings in this area.”

Other concerning areas were where there were culverts that could be enlarged and areas where ponding occurred during heavy runoff periods and could impact neighbourhoods.

Councillor George Campbell said he had been in the community longer than many people and had concerns about drainage on the east side of the town which worked its way to the former Moravian Church parking area and under culverts from the church area and the Bruderheim School area to dump in the existing creek on the northwest side of the intersection.

“I’ve seen where the water will back right up into the church parking lot and flood the whole thing and the church basement itself.”

Mara said the intersection was addressed in the study.

“In that area there’s not a lot of infrastructure but that area was modelled and looked at.”

Campbell said that area would have to be fixed up before any future development could take place in the area.

Dowhun said it would be looked at before they got to the final draft of the assessment.

“We can certainly look into that area further if we missed anything,” he said.

Mara said the assessment evaluated the existing drainage systems and culvert capacities. It looked at ponding where water could get into buildings based on rare events such as a 100-year storm and in smaller events such as a five-year storm.

She added they looked at levels of service studying what level of storm event would cause a flooding situation.

Proposed improvements for the area north of the Canadian Rockies Hemp site list three options including culvert replacement, a north pipe running along the

Highway 45 ditch line, and the creation of an east diversion channel.

The study also found some issues in the Woodlands area where a stormwater retention pond is located between the subdivision and older section of Bruderheim..

Campbell said the pond is never dry and much of the land between the pond and the railway tracks is marshland where about 90 per cent of the land is saturated.

“I never seen it where you could attempt to farm that land,” he said.

Mara said her results agreed with that assessment.

Mara said the engineering firm picked some criteria for improvements, which included installing underground pipes, culverts, and creating drainage areas to prevent ponding around buildings. Improvements could include replacing existing damaged culverts, regrading and better defining ditches and possibly adding catch basins in some areas.

Many of the areas studied in the assessment, Mara said, could be easily fixed by clearing some ditches to improve drainage, by either enlarging existing culverts or adding additional culverts.

In the Brookside subdivision, she said they recommended adding some catch basins and upgrading some underground pipes.

In the downtown area she had culvert and pipe improvements.

She suggested that the area north of the CRH site could have a new pipe created to divert water to the ditches along highway 45 and then have those ditches opened further to provide better drainage to the railways tracks. That model had everything staying within the highway right of way and a utility corridor.

Another option would be adding culverts to the north of the Rockies site which would see the capacity increased and diverting the water away from existing buildings.

The firm wasn’t recommending upgrading the railway culverts.

“They have good capacity,” said Mara. “It’s just a matter of getting the water to those culverts.”

The final option was an east diversion which would have water diverted into a ditch which would divert water well to the east of the hemp plant site and then run north past the town limits and then turn west to empty into the existing creek.

Hauch said the plan did provide options for council to look at but no decisions had to be made yet.

Mara presented some estimated cost projections for completing any suggested repairs or additional construction.

The total for the downtown area, regional catchments and Brookside subdivision would total $1,804,000 with the projects ranging from low to medium in importance.

At the Canadian Rockies site and lands north the culvert replacement would cost an estimated $75,000. Common improvements in the area would cost an estimated $82,200, the north piping would be an estimated $860,000 and the proposed east diversion cost would be $740,000.

When asked, Podoborozny said some of the costs would be shared through Alberta Transportation and they wouldn’t all have to be paid for by the Town.

“Once we got a final report we would go to Alberta Transportation with our engineers and work on some costing arrangements,” she said.

Mara said the proposals as outlined were very conceptual.

“Once we propose all the improvements we would then add peak flow recommendations for further developments. There would have to be a more detailed drainage plan prepared and that would then have to implement stormwater management controls based on peak flow rates.

She suggested for the Rockies site the lowest cost option be further explored.

Following her presentation, Dowhun added there was a second phase to the report which would be paid for by an additional grant.

“That could allow us to look at detailing some of the areas of the highest priority,” he said.

Podoborozny added one of the benefits of the initial report was that all the information was able to be digitized and added to the Town’s existing database. This is really exciting news for our town going forward.”

Council passed a motion to accept the report as information.

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BY JANA SEMENIUK

The Elk Island Public School’s Advocacy Committee has been making strategic plans for the upcoming Provincial Election, according to a verbal report given by Board Chair Trina Boymook at the EIPS board meeting Jan. 19.

Boymook said the Committee met on Jan. 4 where strategies and thoughts on the election were discussed.

“We had a number of areas of focus (and) we took a look at those thoughts around what we're going to do with those and which ones we're going to be including in preparation for the upcoming election,” said Boymook.

“The committee has spent time thinking strategically around how do we leverage the upcoming election to move our voice in some particular area.”

While Boymook did not elaborate, she did say the committee will be meeting again on February 1, following a Board Chairs’ meeting with the Alberta School Board Association.

“As they walk Board Chairs through its strategy for the upcoming election, then we will consider those and see how we will be incorporating them into our plans,” she said.

EIPS Communications Director Laura McNabb said elections provide opportunities for school boards to highlight educational issues.

“A provincial election provides school divisions with the opportunity to highlight educational issues of concern to school families,” she said by email.

She stated that the committee’s purpose, as outlined in the Divisions’ Four-Year Educational Plan, is that “The Division is committed to engagement and advocacy to enhance public education.”

McNabb added that the Advocacy Committee is part of EIPS where

WILLIS, Gary

Trustees and Admin staff sit on the committee with no additional payment for committee work.

The Alberta School Board Association (ASAB) is funded partially through government grants and partially through an annual fee paid by each of the 61 school boards according to the number of students in their division.

In 2021 EIPS paid $78,000 to ASBA.

It is with heavy hearts we share with you that on January 15, 2023 Gary Willis of Chipman, AB., passed away at the age of 55.

Gary is survived by his loving wife Keiron; son, Kristopher; daughter, Anna; his parents, Pam &  Dave

Willis; brother, Darren Willis; sister Anthea Willis; and niece, Annika Willis.

At Gary’s request, we will not hold a memorial service. In lieu of flowers, and other tributes: donations can be made to the Haying In The 30’s Cancer Support Society, Box 32, Mallaig, AB., T0A 2K0