Residents living in the community surrounding Cochrane Lake have been battling rising water levels for the last few years, but the situation took a serious turn in the first weeks of July as water in the artificial lake threatened to flood several surrounding homes.
Jill Breeck and John Boutet moved to the area 12 years ago when the body of water was only a slough in the distance, but now water is inching closer to the back door of their “dream home.”
Breeck, 79, said keeping their home from flooding consumes of lot of their time.
“It has really altered our lives. It’s become nothing but a constant source of worry,” she said, adding their lawn is underneath a few feet of water and the mature trees on their property are dead. A pump runs 24-hours a day, and Boutet, 77, stacked sandbags in an attempt to keep water at bay.
Rocky View County (RVC) delivered 3,000 sandbags to area residents on July 3, to assist them in protecting their property, said RVC’s Communication Manager Grant Kaiser. The County also began the third year of pumping water into Horse Creek to lower the lake levels, but residents said because of the volume of water, it wasn’t enough.
“It may have gone down an inch or two, but because of the rain, it’s not making much of a difference,” said Breeck.
Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resource Development (AESRD) approved an additional emergency pump to divert lake water into nearby Big Hill Creek on July 7, to be operational on July 10.
“We’re not going to stop trying to get this lake back to the right level,” said Reeve Margaret Bahcheli, adding the County is continuing to contemplate a permanent solution with AESRD to install an overland pipe into the Bow River. Several factors have to be addressed including gaining land-use approvals and working with the train tracks that intersect the diversion route, said Bahcheli.
In August of 2012, Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resource Development (AESRD) ordered the developer, Jeff Colvin, and Regional Water Services (RWS), which provides treated water and sewer to the Monterra community surrounding the lake, to lower the water levels of Cochrane Lake due to flooding of nearby homes.
However, the County has been forced to do so, as the developer has not because RWS maintains the requirement to lower lake levels was not included in the water license agreement issued by AESRD. Determining the onus is currently caught-up in an appeal process between AESRD and RWS. Kaiser said AESRD provided the County with $300,000 in previous years to fund the pumping program as a temporary solution.
A Local Improvement Tax (LIT) and offsite levy is also being proposed by RVC to help provide a permanent source of funding the management of water levels in the lake. The proposal suggests pumping water through a permanent pipeline into Horse Creek.
Administration estimated the project to cost about $1.5 million, and would also include the costs of repairing the trail around the lake – which is currently submerged in water, and repairs and upgrades to a recirculation system that would control the quality and discharge rate of the water being pumped into the creek.
The LIT is expected to recover $588,650 of the total cost, and an additional $173,712 through general tax revenue as County-owned land within the LIT area is also subject to the tax. If approved, a development levy would also apply to the Monterra land at Cochrane Lake that is yet to be developed. Administration calculated the levy would recoup $911,350.
Administration originally presented the LIT to area residents with an amortization period of 30 years. On June 10, Councillor Lois Habberfield made an amendment to have the length reduced to 15 years. The proposal is currently being circulated to residents for them to approve or to formally petition against.
Kaiser said the item is expected to come back before council in September.
“The LIT is one approach the County is attempting to move forward in case it is needed, but the solution to lake level problems must come from AESRD,” stated Kaiser.
