On April 7, 2019, Flood Free Calgary spoke about the need for upstream flood mitigation at the Inglewood Community Association’s (ICA) general residents meeting.
Spokesperson Paul Battistella was joined by Calgary River Communities Action Group Co-president, Tony Morris, and two representatives from the City of Calgary’s flood team; Jonathan Slaney and Deighen Blakely.
We were very appreciative of the ICA’s invite to speak to their board and the residents. Residents were engaged and contributed a number of questions and comments to the conversation.
One resident commented on the impacts of inoperational elevators:
“Try living up high without elevators; especially if you’re old, take medication, whatever. It was a nightmare.”
Responding to a question about local mitigation efforts, Deighen highlighted work being done in Eau Claire including the Downtown Barrier, studies underway in Sunnyside and Bowness, work planned for Pearce Estate Park and Heritage Drive, as well as the TransAlta agreement.
“The one big thing that we are quite pleased with is the TransAlta agreement, which has provided immediate protection on the Bow River for a 100-year flood, which we estimate about 250 cubic meters per second.
In Inglewood, it is 20-30cm water level difference just due to the TransAlta agreement alone; so that’s a big one and we will push the province to keep that going in the coming years.”
Interestingly, a discussion about the Inglewood berm (2011) contrasted the ongoing conversations about the proposed Bowness berm, as many people praised the berm as being why Inglewood didn’t flood (although it did experience flooding via sewer back-up).
Following the presentation, the ICA joined Flood Free Calgary as a supporter in our efforts to expedite upstream flood mitigation infrastructure.
Thank you to everyone who was involved in the evening!
Curious how you can help us keep the momentum in the push for upstream mitigation? We’d be happy to meet with and present to your organization about obstacles and opportunities to getting critical projects built. Email us at info@floodfreecalgary.com to find out more.