Image Credit: CFJC Today / Adam Donnelly

By Jill Sperling

Sloughing Slope

Cherry Creek resident fears property will flood if weakened slope gives way

Jul 29, 2020 | 4:23 PM

KAMLOOPS — A Cherry Creek resident has growing concerns about a sloughing slope above the creek that runs beside her property.

Corine LeBourdais says the issue began after after repair work was done to the highway beside her property following flooding in 2017 and 2018. She says the work forced the creek to take a new direction, and it is now eroding the bank.

“The Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resources, that we’ve been dealing with, doesn’t seem to think that there is a responsibility there,” She explained. “It’s just the responsibility of the home owners to fix the problem that wasn’t created by them.”

LeBourdais is concerned that if the problem isn’t fixed, the creek will get blocked up and cause more flooding.

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“A hydrologist from the Thompson Nicola Regional District was out as well as a hydrologist from FLNRO themselves,” she said, “and they each wrote their separate reports and they’re in agreement that to fix the problem that they’re having up here they need to widen the creek. And to widen the creek it has to happen on my property, and it has to be a huge amount of property taken and basically a dike built that they say has to be built at my expense.”

Image Credit: CFJC Today / Adam Donnelly

In an emailed statement the Ministry of Forests says the province had allowed the TNRD “to apply for a single authorization to do in-stream repairs on behalf of all affected residents, with the TNRD paying for the engineering design and the residents paying for the materials and labour … ”

The Ministry says this solution would have saved individuals thousands of dollars in engineering and consulting fees.

“Ms. LeBourdais chose not to participate in this solution,” added the Ministry spokesperson.

The Ministry also says “riparian property owners enjoy the right of access to the water, but also have the responsibility to protect themselves from the force of that water.”

LeBourdais has been in contact with the office of Kamloops-South Thompson MLA Todd Stone, who believes she shouldn’t have to foot the bill to fix the problem.

“I think it’s grossly unfair … when the reason for that activity in the first place largely relates to a combination of factors that are entirely out of her control and, in fact, might have been within the control of provincial regulatory authorities.”

Stone says he’s urging the Ministry to undertake a watershed study of Cherry Creek to determine a permanent fix for the ongoing flooding issues there.

Meantime, LeBourdais is fearfully waiting for the slope to give way.

“How long does it take until it can’t handle the stress and everything comes down? I don’t know.”