Mitigation measures
Community group worried flooding fixes could harm south end Sydney trail system
A community group has expressed concerns that potential flood mitigation measures could be harmful to the south end Sydney trail system it developed and maintains.
And, members of the Baille Ard Recreation Association are hopeful their voices will be heard if and when the Cape Breton Regional Municipality is successful in securing federal money for projects designed to minimize the effects of future flooding in the area.
“We’re concerned that whatever is done to mitigate the flooding along the Wash Brook could have a detrimental effect – we want people to know of the potential impact that flood retention could have on this area,” said the association’s David Gabriel, who was raised and still lives in the neighbourhood that was one of the hardest hit after more than 225 millimetres of rain fell in a short period of time and caused widespread flooding on Thanksgiving Day, 2016.
The once-in-a-century flood, as it has been described, destroyed about two-dozen homes and a school, while causing structural and property damage to hundreds of other houses and structures. Almost an entire block between St. Peter’s Road and Royal Avenue is barren, many of its former houses razed in the 20 months since the disaster.
Meanwhile, debate over what caused the flooding and what might be done to prevent the same scope of damage in the future has been hotly debated in the CBRM. If there is any consensus, it’s that the existing infrastructure, combined with the fact that the area sits at the lowest point of the watershed, cannot adequately deal with too much water at any one time.
The issue returned to the public eye on Saturday when the municipality hosted a public meeting on potential flood mitigation measures in relation to the Wash Brook, which most of the time is no more than a gentle, meandering stream winding through Sydney on its way to the harbour.
The CBRM has expressed interest in securing some of the federal flood mitigation dollars that are up for grabs. Mayor Cecil Clarke has stated that the province has agreed to consider putting forward an application, involving multiple municipalities, to access the program that requires applicants to have a minimum of $20 million in projects. The deadline for applying is next month.
And, with such a short timeline, Gabriel is worried that concerns about the environmental impacts of potential mitigation initiatives on the Baille Ard Nature Trails could be swept aside
in the rush to secure soughtafter federal funding.
“I am hopeful the powers that be will listen to our concerns, and if they do anything in here that they’re going to do it right, so it has an absolute minimum effect on this old growth forest,” he said.
“We want to make sure the municipality understands that we want to work with them — we want to have a voice in this — we live in the south end, we grew up along the brook, so we
know of the concerns of people further downstream, but there is also a strong argument that there are areas where people shouldn’t be living.”
Although a recent $100,000 study, paid for by the province, determined that it would be unlikely that any amount of engineering could solve the area’s flooding problem, Victoria Fernandez, a water resources engineer with CBCL Ltd., told those in attendance at Saturday’s meeting that the best solution might be to add berms and retention ponds to hold water in times of excessive rain.
The engineer specifically suggested that additional storage could be created by placing berms upstream of the Susan McEachern Memorial Ball Field.
But it’s that recommendation that worries Joe Dennis, another member of the Baille Ard Recreation Association, who is a lifelong resident of the south end Sydney neighbourhood.
Dennis and Gabriel argue that such a plan, albeit somewhat vague at this time, would most likely require the felling of trees and the possible loss of parts of the trail system.
And, they suggest it is the forest itself that provides the strongest defense against flooding.
“During the growing season a mature tree can soak up close to 100 gallons of water, so trees are, in themselves, retention ponds,” said Dennis, who added that the nature haven is one of the areas hidden gems, although he argues that not enough people know of its existence.
“Anybody that walks this trail comes away feeling better than when they walked in and that’s physically and mentally — I talk to people all the time who tell about how they leave their stress behind once they’re in this wonderful, old-growth forest. It’s not just a recreation area, it’s much more and given the gaps in our health-care system this has got to be considered a great resource for our community.”
The Baille Ard Nature Trails, now lengthened to about four kilometres, are the brainchild of the community group and have been utilized since 1993. The trail system sits on a 70acre tract of low-lying Acadian forest at the bottom of a natural amphitheatre that is partially encircled by Hardwood Hill, Highway 125 and Cossitt Heights.