Dear Editor,

The last letter to the editor regarding the ‘1 in 100 year’ Flood Hazard Study for Whitecourt – Woodlands was dated April 7, 2015. It was emailed to the three local newspapers. That letter noted that the flood hazard study presented by the River Forecast Section of ESRD not be accepted mostly because the engineered ‘1 in 100 year’ design flood falls short of what we could be facing – and facing very soon. A ‘1 in 200 year’ flood is a reasonable reality!
What is bothersome is that one of the implementation goals in the ESRD power point presentation is that the Town of Whitecourt and Woodlands County incorporate the flood hazard mapping into official land-use planning bylaws and decision making. Now, unless the Government of Alberta is prepared to formally take responsibility for the costs (including judicial judgements) if flood events exceed the ‘1 in 100 year’ level occur, it would seem totally insane for our municipal governments to comply with this requirement.
It should be noted here that the original work done by the municipal government of Woodlands County included information for a ‘1 in 200 and 500 and 1,000 year’ flood events. The ESRD power point presentation did likewise. By definition any of these flood events (200, 500, 1,000 year) could occur soon! So, given the uncertainty of the timing of such events, should our municipal governments even consider regulating development in the ‘fringe’? If they did, what level of flooding would the fringe be determined by?
Why not move to an “allow development” process. First of all, it is necessary to develop the ‘floodway fringe’ boundary that will be the basis for the suggested ‘allow development’ process in the fringe. (Here our elected officials are in a bind – they don’t appear to know what is coming down these rivers!). Let’s say a guardian angel tells them it should be a ‘1 in 100 year’ flood event boundary. Good – the first step done.
Secondly, it is necessary to prepare for the public a first class set of data to guide their decision(s) in whether or not to develop within the fringe boundary noted above. It is suggested that the eight-page ‘1 in 100 year’ Flood Hazard Maps prepared for the Municipal Governments of Woodland County is a good start because of the scale of these maps – the majority of Alberta’s citizens will have no trouble reading them! These maps need to be updated to include the data for the Town of Whitecourt. Then prepare and include maps for two historic floods and engineered maps for ‘1 in 200, 500 and 1,000 year’ flood levels.
The result – every page will have six sheets (two historic and the 100, 200, 500 and 1,000 year design floods). Viewers would easily come to the appreciation of what they are facing at the moment and what they could face in the future. They would have no trouble deciding for themselves if they should develop or not!
The advantage of this suggested ‘allow development in the fringe’ approach is that the decision to develop moves completely into the realm of the developer – it protects the taxpayer!
There is another advantage to this approach. With sets of this comprehensive eight-page flood risk map displayed in both governmental locations and both high schools (and fully documented in the three local newspapers) citizens are, hopefully, more likely to become involved. Understanding will emerge that the Whitecourt area cannot be protected by an enormous levee system – upstream storage (dam wet or dry) are required! Consensus will ultimately form and result in causing the Alberta Government to undertake the development of an Athabasca River drainage system flood prevention strategy and implementation plan. Now, would not such an approach be exactly what our elected officials and all our citizens be working for?

Alex Bauer Whitecourt