The Coldwater River is now flowing down what used to be Pine Street in Merritt (Image Credit: Greg Lowis / City of Merritt)

By Chad Klassen

MERRITT FLOOD

Coldwater River in Merritt carves new channel, could delay residents’ return home

Nov 18, 2021 | 4:12 PM

MERRITT, B.C. — The Coldwater River, which broke its banks overnight Monday to cause widespread flooding, has an entirely new channel. With this latest development, the timeline for a return could be pushed back.

Drone video shot by the City of Merritt shows the Coldwater River now flowing down what used to be Pine Street in the downtown area of the city. High flows over the last couple days eroded the banks and the Coldwater carved a completely new channel.

The city says this complicates getting the wastewater treatment plant back online.

“At this particular point in this course, the Coldwater River separates the public works yard, which includes the wastewater treatment facilities, from our rapid infiltration settling ponds, which are on the other side of the river,” said Merritt EOC communications manager Greg Lowis. “Unfortunately, because these two critical pieces of infrastructure were connected, we know we have pipes in that location. There are hydro poles in that location, there’s of course the asphalt of the road itself in that location, and of course there’s people’s homes that used to live on that street.”

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The city say it will work on solutions around the new river channel. Engineers are already inspecting the area for any damaged pipes.

“We know that the pumps in the wastewater treatment plant itself in the public works yard are still, so obviously the engineers will be looking at critical questions like: ‘What condition are the pipes underneath the river?’ Until they’ve completed that inspection, and they know what condition the infrastructure is in, we really won’t have any kind of timeline on how long it’s going to take to make sure everything is safely connected back together.”

The city is also conducting tests on the drinking water system. Officials say residents still in the community may see running water in their home, but they are being told the water is absolutely not safe to drink.