Time for action

BY KIRK STARRATT

kstarratt@kentvilleadvertiser.ca

NovaNewsNow.com

Homeowners on West Main Street say now is the time for the Town of Kentville to take action to prevent future flooding. It has been about five-and-a-half years since a major spring flood devastated properties in the area.

In a recent letter to Kentville town council and the mayor regarding their flooding concerns, West Main Street homeowners Jocelyn and Scott Nicholson thanked the elected officials for organizing a recent information session about the town’s control structure or dyke project to help alleviate flooding in the vicinity. They said they were impressed with the level of expertise of presenters and felt satisfied regarding how clearly their questions were answered.

They heard that proposed pumping stations at the Cornwallis River-end of a culvert close to their home would take away some of the water they have been receiving through storm drainage. The duckbill now installed at the end of the culvert will prevent river water from back flowing into the area. These measures would help mitigate the amount of storm water on West Main Street properties, at least preventing the amount that flowed in during the spring flood of 2003.

The Nicholsons said the presenters indicated clearly that the greatest contributor to the flooding is the bottleneck effect produced at the Cornwallis River bridge. They said the mayor has been working diligently with the province to secure funding for a bridge study for the town, but the tardy response from the province is the greatest barrier to alleviating future widespread flooding in Kentville.

They want council to petition the province for emergency funding to install effective pumps, the rationale being that the tardy response of the province to the flooding issue, as the owner of the bridge, has forced the town into another course of action; the currently proposed control structure or dyke project.

Culvert has worked to prevent drainage

The town commissioned an engineering study to examine the causes of the 2003 spring flood and explored a number of the six recommendations. One action taken was the installation of a drainage culvert at the far end of West Main Street near the soccer dome. The Nicholsons said this culvert has worked to prevent drainage water from flowing through the oil-soaked sands at the west end of the street and has reduced the possibility of another widespread oil contamination.

Although this was a wise decision by the town, the Nicholsons said West Main residents experienced a flood this past February that closed off the street, put EMO on high alert and sent residents into a panic to empty basements and garages.

“Thankfully, it was a sunny day, there wasn’t a high tide surge of water up the culvert and, without the predicted rainfall amounts, water only came up to the nine-metre contour line on our properties, one metre short of the 2003 flood,” the Nicholsons said.

The fact the province’s average monthly rainfall is being dumped in greater amounts in shorter time intervals leads them to conclude that their properties are going to be receiving lots of storm water drainage in the future.

The Nicholsons said they were told at the information session that the pumps needed to remove the water out of the culvert connected to their ditch would not be put in place until spring and only if extra funding is found to complete the project. Therefore, they conclude that their homes are in greater jeopardy for flooding because nearby development is occurring on higher elevations than the West Main homes and the only stormwater drainage outlet is the same culvert that runs into the ditch behind their properties.

“As representatives of the people, we hope you will agree that the bureaucratic wheels have turned too slowly for the families on this street,” the Nicholsons said in their letter to the mayor and councillors. “We are now asking you to act before our next flood.”

The Nicholsons said it is a factual statement and not a threat that, due to the current parameters regarding future provincial and federal relief funding for residents, if West Main Street residents flood tomorrow, the only course of action left to residents might be to file a suit against the town.

“We are hoping we never have to take that route,” the Nicholsons said. “So, to us, any action at this point in time, while we are in even greater jeopardy, would make West Main Street residents feel that our town cares about our very real ongoing plight.”

Residents’ recommendations

The Nicholsons recommend that the town build up the back of the low-lying properties on West Main Street so that storm water will not flow over the lip of the ditch into their backyards. They said this would go a long way to prevent flooding on the properties.

They said a retention pond on the park side of the nearby walking and cycling trail would slow down the intense flow of water directed toward West Main Street properties.

The old wooden culvert under the site on the former CP Rail Land currently being developed is being upgraded through the town’s control structure project. The Nicholsons said the last part of the culvert that runs under the street to the ditch has yet to be replaced. They are asking that the culvert be attached to the south ditch, on the opposite side of the walking trail, instead of the ditch immediately behind their properties.

“If the culvert that connects that ditch to ours was blocked off, our ditch would no longer have to be the holding tank for all the storm drainage water formerly diverted to us,” the Nicholsons said. “Our ditch could just hold water from our own properties.”