It’s official – the County of Barrhead has declared an agricultural emergency.
Councillors voted in favour of the declaration on July 19. The declaration means the County will write letters to both the federal and provincial governments to inform them the County has made this declaration, and discuss damages that have occurred due to the flooding of the Athabasca and Paddle rivers, downstream of the Paddle River Dam, into agricultural and pasture areas. County CAO Mark Oberg said it is a step taken to encourage both levels of government to create a relief program for the agricultural producers. Letters will be sent to Premier Ed Stelmach, as well as Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Jack Hayden, Minister of Environment Rob Renner, Minister of Municipal Affairs Hector Goudreau, Barrhead-Morinville-Westlock MLA Ken Kowalski, Yellowhead MP Robert Merrifield and Federal Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Gerry Ritz.
Kowalski is a former minister of emergency services, and he said he’s been through many situations like this. The County has to advise the province, which will in turn advise the federal government, and then the County has to identify the damages to County infrastructure and apply for funding. If all is acceptable, there is a formula in place to deal with these matters, he said.
“This is not uncommon; we’ve been through it many times before,” Kowalski said last week. “The key thing is the County must determine the impact to its infrastructure. The Paddle River Dam is in place, and it’s holding, and we all knew there was going to be flooding down river – that was identified about 10 days ago. Alberta Environment, Alberta Agriculture and Alberta Transportation are all aware of the situation.”
Normally by the second week of July, the waters start to recede, he said, and added this is a very abnormal situation.
The province has access to satellites that hover over Alberta, Kowalski said, and it can trace any movement of water on a 24-hour basis. Kowalski said it would be very responsible for the County to do its evaluation. There is some agricultural land that is flooded, but those are individual cases, not County cases, and there is insurance for that in place.
That being said, as of July 20, the County was not out of the woods yet. As the floodwaters make its way across the County, different areas will encounter different levels, Oberg said.
“This flood is different – it’s doing what floods do, but it’s doing it slower than what we are used to,” he said. “The time it takes for a peak of water to get from point A to point B is usually hours in floods the County has experienced in the past. With this flood, it’s taking days.”
That does not bode well for anyone, he said. It means when the water flows over the dykes, it’s staying higher for a longer period of time, rather than it staying at that level for only a few hours. It has wrought even more havoc on crops because of that. Floods have hard hit the west bank of the Paddle River, and there has been considerable damage along the Athabasca River near Fort Assiniboine, he added.
Furthermore, between Campsie and Thunder Lake, a creek that normally runs into the river has flooded, and has resulted in significant damage, as well.
“The provincial government has put in a dyke system and the Paddle River dam, which helps, but nature being what it is, you can’t control it completely,” Oberg said.
As of last week, the one trouble spot the County is keeping a very close eye on is where the Pembina and Paddle rivers meet, Oberg said. If both rivers are high, then it will result in even more flooding; however, the Pembina River is going down, so the County is hopeful that when the peak of the Paddle River meets with the Pembina River, it will be low enough to accept the extra water.
It goes without saying that the County of Barrhead has been hard hit by floods, but the County of Lac Ste. Anne has been hit much harder, Oberg said. Lac Ste. Anne was forced to close in the neighbourhood of 100 roads, and dozens of bridges have been affected by flooding.
The County of Barrhead had to close three roads, Oberg said.
“We closed one bridge, because the water was approaching the bottom of it. Our damages have been quite light when you think about roads, but when you think about crop land, it’s a whole lot worse.”
Comparing weather from last year to weather this year would be like comparing apples to oranges. The County has had years of drought, Oberg said, but even last year’s weather was wetter than the previous year.
“To say that nature is unpredictable is an understatement,” he said.
