Heavy equipment sits at the ready to grab any logs that could potentially jam the culvert in Cache Creek. (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By Dylana Kneeshaw

SPRING FLOOD WARNINGS

Cache Creek prepares for flooding, as river turbidity tests new water treatment plant in Ashcroft

Apr 21, 2020 | 4:41 PM

CACHE CREEK — A local state of emergency has been in place for several days already, and as of Tuesday, the Village of Cache Creek is under a flood warning.

Wendy Coomber with Cache Creek Emergency Operation Centre communications says flooding isn’t necessarily unexpected, but it’s tricky to predict how it will impact the nearby area.

“Every time the creek floods like this, it changes direction. It changes course, it cuts new channels, so you can’t predict it anymore from year to year.”

This year, the Cache Creek rose a couple of weeks earlier than normal, and officials quickly put prevention structures into place near the culvert area along Quartz Road. There’s a strong flow in the creek, but Coomber says they’re on top of monitoring the situation.

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“It’s not looking too bad to be honest. It looks a lot worse,” she notes, “But it’s supposed to peak sometime tonight so we’re hoping it doesn’t get much worse than this, but we’re preparing for that.”

Coomber says 40-50 residents who live along the creek have now been served evacuation orders, as the village expands its focus to the nearby river.

“The Bonaparte however, the 5 day forecast was for it to rise a certain amount, and it’s already risen that amount in one day. So we’re expecting it to come up a lot higher beyond what it’s forecast was.”

Nearby residents and business owners, such as Sekyunz Kim at the Tumbleweed Motel say they were concerned when they saw the water levels start to rise, given the recent history of flooding in Cache Creek.

However, with the defensive barriers, and a sandbagging station, Kim says he has some confidence in the prevention efforts.

“This is better. This year is good,” he says, making note of the barriers surrounding his motel parking lot. “4 times (in the past), there’s been mistake, mistake, mistake. This year is good. It’s all covered, so it’s better.”

Across town near the Bonaparte River, longtime Cache Creek resident Adeline Sarver says they put their sandbags out three weeks ago, and had a feeling the water would rise this way. The waters of the Bonaparte lie several feet away from Sarver’s property.

“Everybody tells me it’s going to get very high,” she says. “It’s been higher – let’s put it this way. It’s been – where the woodshed is, it’s been to the top of the shingles- that’s how high it’s been. And that’s the highest so far since we moved here in ’55.”

In Ashcroft, Mayor Barbara Roden says the main concern lies in the state of the Thompson River, as the village overlooks the tributary where the Bonaparte River meets up the Thompson. That’s where the village draws its water from, and usually the area winds up on a boil water advisory during flood season.

“The thing that we have an eye on right now is the turbidity. And this is the first spring for our new water treatment plant. So it’s going to be a good test of the new system to see how it copes with the very heavy turbidity that we’re expecting for the next few days.”

The new treatment system has two pumps in the Thompson River. When the river conditions are as turbulent as they are right now, Roden says they would be unable to send divers in to repair the pumps if a problem arose.

“What we do have is some funding leftover from the construction of the plant,” Roden explains. “So (with) that we can actually build sleeves through the banks so we can physically haul the pumps out of the river if they need to be worked on. So that’s going to be a big benefit for the village.”

Roden adds that Ashcroft has equipment and help on standby in case nearby Cache Creek needs it. Now that flood preparations have been enacted, all eyes will be on the creek and river levels to see what the next steps will be.