Alert Town employees are being applauded for their quick reactions when they noticed sanitary sewers filling quickly and lift stations were overtaxed, very likely averting serious problems when the Sawridge Creek began to rise Thursday morning.
“Jack (Sarty) phoned me to say that the sanitary sewer system was backing up, that the lift station couldn’t handle the flow that was being generated and that we needed to do something,” praised Town manager Jay Simons just over 24 hours later.
“He realized that we had issues and then we got the notice from Alberta Environment that the Sawridge Creek was going to rise rapidly, and that by afternoon it would rise significantly.”
Sarty suggested they should call in the vacuum trucks to help support the quickly-filling sewer system, then crews set the wheels in motion, preparing for what could become a barrage of logs down the creek as it rushed down from the surrounding Grizzly Ridge hills.
The creek flows under seven bridges at it passes through the community “and when it started to rise we had to monitor it quickly,” the Manager explained. Logs and debris that had escaped the huge metal jaws of the trash racks several kilometres to the south began plugging up the creek under the bridges prompting the Town to round up several back-hoes and pieces of heavy equipment to pluck giant deadheads from the rushing waters at the bridges.
Town officials also dispatched the heavy machines to the two bridges that span Hwy. 88 between Hwy. 2 and Caribou Trail that’s two kilometres to the north.
The rushing waters moved down the creek at an almost unheard of 203 cubic metres per second, he said, close to 70 times greater than its usual three cubic metres per second.
“That’s significantly more than in 1988” when flood waters wreaked millions of dollars of damage on this community.
After that disaster the province constructed trash racks to prevent a barrage of logs from rushing downstream with the flood waters, and widened and deepened the spillway that guides floodwaters in front of the berm that lies on the north side of Hwy. 2.
Crews also built up the banks of the creek as it heads into the south side of the community and passes behind the Northern Lakes College campus on Main Street. “It all worked well,” Simons mused Friday morning. “Lots of lessons from 1988 helped us enormously.
“The staff did an excellent job, had a positive attitude, showed excellent teamwork, and made the right decisions.”
Through those actions, he said, “we were able to avoid a major disaster.”
Unfortunately, water found its way into half a dozen or so basements, he said, “but all in all we fared pretty well.
“There’s probably room for some improvement, but I don’t have any complaints. The staff did an excellent job.”
Late Friday the Town was encouraging residents to conserve water where ever possible so the water treatment plant could clear the murky water.
But by noon Saturday, Simons called the media to say he was lifting the conserve water request, adding that the system “was never compromised” throughout the high water event.

Copyright © 2000 The Lakeside Leader. All Rights Reserved.
No part may be reproduced without written permission.

View our Privacy Statement.
Send website suggestions to the Webmaster