Fingers crossed for last-ditch diversion plan

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 12/07/2011 (5433 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The NDP government must give the go-ahead to a major construction project to drain Lake Manitoba within days or risk watching the livelihoods of thousands of Manitobans be destroyed, some residents say.

Premier Greg Selinger and his officials have already said they’ve fast-tracked work on an emergency diversion channel between Lake St. Martin and Lake Winnipeg that under normal circumstances would takes years to plan. The proposed diversion — its design and route is being hammered out by two design firms — will move more water more quickly from Lake Manitoba to Lake St. Martin and into Lake Winnipeg.

“We’re just crossing our fingers and hoping this thing is going to go forward,” RM of Coldwell Reeve Brian Sigfusson said Monday. “I don’t see any other way. They’ve got to drain it.”

Sigfusson said the project has to start within the next two weeks so there’s a chance of lowering the lake’s level before next spring when winter ice breaks up.

“Ice next winter or even late next fall will wipe out everything we’ve ever done,” he said. “The ice pushes in piles and when the lake is at this level, there are really no banks to slow it down. It just pushes everything: trees, cottages. It just demolishes it.”

That would be even more destructive than this year’s flood, he said.

“If we don’t see it happen we can write this side of the Interlake off and parts of the west side,” he said. “People will take a buyout and leave and there won’t be anyone coming back.”

Lake Manitoba is at its highest recorded level and is forecast to crest on Friday between 817.3 and 817.5 feet above sea level. It was measured last Thursday at 817.14 feet.

The province hopes to get Lake Manitoba’s level down to about 814.1 feet by Jan. 1 and below 813 feet by spring if the new diversion is in place.

The diversion would be built under a provincial state of emergency so that it both qualifies for federal funding assistance and avoids months of environmental reviews.

The high water on Lake Manitoba and the resulting mandatory evacuation has already killed business from seasonal cottagers and permanent residents who call the lakeside home. The high water has also flooded thousands of acres of crop and ranch land.

“Lots of people say they’re finished,” Sigfusson said. “They’ve moving out of here.

“It’s like if you took half the people away from Winnipeg. How long do you think many businesses would stay open? You’d lose half of them.”

Langruth farmer Jonas Johnson said he’s one of those people who faces financial ruin. He wants the provincial government to buy him out. His 270 acres, which used to grow hay, are under water. On Monday, crews built up the earth dike around his home.

“We have a farm that’s been in our family for 116 years,” Johnson said. “It was, for my wife Lydia and I, our retirement. Now we have no means of making an income. They stole my retirement package from me.”

Johnson, 64, said he wants a buyout of $450,000 for his home and land, which he says will be unproductive for five years.

“The residents of Winnipeg need to be told that they are safe in the flood plain of Winnipeg because we are taking the water,” he said. “My wife and I are losing everything here to keep people in Winnipeg dry.”

During the height of this year’s flood, the Portage Diversion funnelled up to 34,000 cubic feet per second of water from the flooded Assiniboine and Souris rivers into Lake Manitoba. The diversion was originally designed to carry a flow of 25,000 cfs.

Sigfusson said planners are looking at a route than can be dug quickly. “They don’t want to do too much rock-blasting if they can get away with it,” Sigfusson said. “That’s costly, very costly.”

He added a diversion plan has been on the books since the early 1970s when the Portage Diversion was built.

bruce.owen@freepress.mb.ca