Five years later, flood concerns still remain

BY KIRK STARRATT

kstarratt@kentvilleadvertiser.ca

NovaNewsNow.com

Little has changed in five years for some residents of West Main Street, where flooding concerns are still paramount half a decade after the major spring flood of late March and early April 2003.

Jocelyn and Scott Nicholson of West Main wrote a letter to Kentville town council as a follow-up to their most recent flooding episode Feb. 19, 2008. They saw water flow across their neighbour’s backyards and come up to the height of their back step. Jocelyn said she watched Public Works personnel remove a grate from the culvert at the eastern end of the street the evening before to allow water to flow more easily to the Cornwallis River.

Initially, it looked like water was flowing through the culvert toward the river. However, Jocelyn said, she went back an hour later and observed the water flowing through the culvert in the opposite direction, up behind their homes.

Water was flowing through the culvert the town had installed to take water away from higher elevations and the nearby sports fields into the drainage ditch. The ditch directs water to the culvert at the eastern end of the street leading to the river.

Water levels rose during the afternoon of Feb. 19 and the Nicholsons decided to clear their basement and move valuables from their shed just in case levels continued to rise.

Jocelyn said the water level to which they were subjected Feb. 19 was brought about by conditions similar to the major flood that began March 31, 2003, including frozen ground, the level of the river, high tides and snow melt. However, luckily, not as much rain fell.

“It was sunny, not rainy, when we went to work,” she said about the flooding Feb. 19. “We were shocked.”

Other recommendations need to be addressed

Following the “March 2003 – Storm Water Study” commissioned by the town, council took a number of proactive steps to rectify the problem on West Main, including the second culvert, making sure the existing culvert was working and digging out the drainage ditch to increase capacity.

However, the Nicholsons say other recommendations of the report must be addressed, including a net zero policy through the use of retention ponds for any new development, especially if it’s decided that a new school planned for Kentville is to be built on the nearby soccer fields. They ask council to proceed with caution when it comes to future development.

“It’s a great place for a school, but it has to be looked at,” Jocelyn said.

The Nicholsons said they feel strongly as well that flooding concerns will never be rectified until the bottleneck situation in the Cornwallis River is addressed. Jocelyn said they understand that the river is federal jurisdiction and hope the situation will be addressed in conjunction with a planned study for a new bridge in the vicinity. She said they would be willing to help in any way possible to work toward a solution with all three levels of government.

“It’s timely with the bridge study,” Jocelyn said, pointing out that higher water levels in the river could partially be contributed to infilling over the years and environmental changes.

She points out that although the town defines the West Main Street area as a flood plain for emergency measures purposes, Environment Canada does not consider it a flood plain and the Nicholsons don’t live on the river. They live along the old railbed, which never would have been built in an area prone to regular flooding. She pointed out as well that their street was the original Main Street in town.

Only a trickle of water made it into their home this time and there was nothing coming up through sump pump holes in the basement. It all came in around their property through low-lying areas after the drainage ditch backed up and overflowed.

“It’s not about fingerpointing; it’s about working together to find a solution,” Jocelyn said. “I see this as an opportunity to go back to the table.”

Jocelyn said steps the town has taken so far have been successful in terms of diverting storm water around areas where oil has been sitting in sandy soil for years, so there wasn’t the same threat of contamination as in 2003.

However, she recognizes also that culverts diverting storm water to the river add to the water level in the river, which is a concern.

She said she was impressed at how quickly the town’s Emergency Measures Organization (EMO) was mobilized during the February flooding event and it’s obvious how much better prepared the town is now compared to 2003 when it comes to reacting to such an emergency.