Premier seeks answers on sudden Labrador flooding

Premier Dwight Ball says he wants answers about what happened last week when people had to be swiftly airlifted out of Mud Lake, N.L., as the Churchill River suddenly rose downstream from the massive new Muskrat Falls hydro development.

Many of the 70 residents are asking whether operations at the megaproject are to blame for conditions never seen by people who’ve lived there for decades, Ball said in an interview Wednesday.

“There’s no doubt people are fearful and wondering if this could happen again. We’ve got to make sure that we ... get an independent assessment done so that we relieve this fear. “People need answers.” The mostly seasonal Labrador community was swamped May 17 after ice jammed nearby where the Churchill River meets Lake Melville.

Ball said the province is now seeking independent consultants to review water flow records, along with traditional knowledge from elders of the region.

“They’re very gentle people,” Ball said of residents he met during a tour of the area Monday. “They’re not really pointing fingers at anyone at this point, they’re just saying: ‘I was raised there. I was born there. I’ve never seen this before.”’

Nor could they remember their parents ever describing such rapid and severe flooding, Ball said. The difference this year, many residents told him, is the Muskrat Falls development upstream.

The $11.7-billion project now under construction near Happy Valley-Goose Bay has bloated in cost by more than $4 billion from original estimates and is well behind schedule. Spillway gates at Muskrat Falls that control reservoir levels are functional. Ball said Crown corporation Nalcor Energy will be asked about any water manipulations as part of the assessment.

“Nalcor will be directed to participate about anything that they would have done in recent months that could have potentially contributed to this.”