Past flood lessons helped spare Okotoks

Likening development in a floodway to “standing with a match beside a bomb,” the mayor of Okotoks says the town’s land-use policies and a proactive approach to flooding helped it avoid major losses last month.

“With development in the floodway, there will be significant damage whenever you get the major floods,” said Mayor Bill Robertson. “And there will be more major floods.”

In 1998, Okotoks signed on to the Canada-Alberta Flood Damage Reduction Program, part of a federal program initiated in 1975 that aims to discourage “flood vulnerable” development.

In keeping with that program, the town’s land-use bylaw prohibits development in the floodway. It also requires that any building on the flood fringe be floodproofed against a one-in-100-year flood event.

The policies are similar to the new rules the province recently laid out in its disaster recovery program, where homeowners who rebuild their homes in the floodway will not be eligible for future flood-related disaster assistance funding. Those who rebuild in the flood fringe would be eligible for more funding, but would be required to flood-proof their home to protect against a one-in-100-year flood.

Robertson said he supports the province’s flood-mitigation efforts.

“Flood damage, everybody pays for it,” Robertson said. “I agree, if a home is in the floodway and they redevelop there, it’s just going to be severely damaged during the next flood.”

There are two Okotoks homes in the floodway that were built before the town banned development in that area.

On the flood fringe, the bylaw stipulates that the main floor of any development built after 1998 must be at least 0.5 metres above the 100-year flood level.

Robertson said he’d like the province to support residents with older homes that haven’t been floodproofed so they, too, can bring their houses up past that level.

“I’m hoping they will make funding available so they can take that house that they have and raise it up,” he said.

Robertson has heard a number of requests for building in the floodway during his 20 years on council, but said the town sticks to its policies. It also tries to acquire property in the floodway to turn it into public spaces such as parks and picnic areas.

While Robertson says the floodway would be a beautiful area to develop, it’s just not worth the risk.

“By having homes in the floodway we then put our emergency personnel at risk when they have to go down and rescue people,” he said.

Lessons learned from previous floods also helped Okotoks emerge from last month’s flood in far better shape than it has in the past.

In 2005, the Sheep River flowed up into the stormwater mains and flooded downtown Okotoks. Following that flood, the town installed backflow preventers on the stormwater outfalls, which stopped downtown from flooding this time around.

When the downtown flooded eight years ago, the town couldn’t rent any water pumps because they had been rented out already, making flood damage more severe than it would have been had there been pumps available.

“So every year now, for May and June, we rent pumps and have them on standby in case we need them,” he said.

Though the river flow was equally high in both floods, “in 2005 we had far, far greater damage,” said Robertson.

Robertson estimated the damage from this year’s flood is between $3 million and $5 million. Some pathways along the river were washed out and Spoilers Field ball diamond was also destroyed.

Robertson says the outcome of this year’s flood underscores the importance of the town’s existing flood mitigation practices.

“It reinforces the need to restrict the development in the flood fringe,” he said. “And, of course, it’s just a given not to allow development in the floodway.”