The original local state of emergency ran out today. (May 1)
Mayor Bob Simpson says they had to renew it because one property still remains under an Evacuation Order…
“The Evacuation Order is a subset of having a state of emergency. We believe that the situation in Baker Creek is stabilizing, but we’re still uncertain until we get a geotech taking a look at the bank that is impacting the home, so in order to maintain the evacuation order we rolled the state of emergency over for one more week.”
Simpson says a lot of work still has to be done on the creek.
He says the water main is repaired and people can drink their water once again, but he says they are still working on a temporary repair to the sewer pipe break…
“We are working on a work around, but then there will have to be an engineered repair, and we’re just getting some costing on that, but it’s going to be very pricey because we won’t want to route it the same way most likely, and that will require us to put in a lift station, which is not cheap.”
Simpson says the bank erosion, especially around the Sikh Temple and the Wilma Hanson park, is even a longer term fix…
“We’re still working with Ministry folks in emergency planning to get the hydrological and geotech assessment that we need for the whole creek within the city limits, and that will drive the longer term rehabilitation and remediation strategy, so this is going to be a bit of a long haul to get us back up to all repairs being done and the creek being stabilized.”
Simpson says moving water permanently moves the banks, and basically they just have to figure out, from a hydrologist and geotechnical perspective, where it has moved and what the implications are for it, before deciding if they can push it back into its mainstream with some rip rap and some engineering.
Something going on in the Cariboo you think people should know about?
Send us a news tip by emailing [email protected].
