Essa considers Angus flood study in budget

BY Matthew Talbot, Staff   January 26 2010
ANGUS – Essa council is still seeking a solution to Angus’ seasonal flooding problems.
In a budget working session Jan. 20, councillors heard two delegations from companies looking to study the problem Angus suffers yearly.
Essa Mayor David Guergis said AECOM’s presentation stood out as the better of the two.
Yousef Saigh of AECOM said his company would build on the “comprehensive” Greenland report that offered “general recommendations”.
Saigh suggested looking downstream from Angus might provide for a permanent solution.
He also suggested a potential diversion of the Pine Rive, though said that sort of project would be costly.
Essa Mayor David Guergis also considered studying diverting some of the Bear Creek tributaries that come off the Utopia hill and feed into the Nottawasaga River in Angus.
“Everything seems to meet in Angus,” he said, adding he wanted to look at diverting the tributaries to meet the Nottawasaga River further north, to shift the “meeting place”.
Essa fire chief Paul MacDonald suggested looking into Earl Rowe because Essa, the Nottawasaga Valley Conservation Authority and New Tecumseth don’t have control over the dam at Earl Rowe Park.
“We have no authority to say, ‘Control your dam, you’re putting too much water down river to us,'” he said.
“Our problem is there’s a lot of water coming at us right now we can’t control. The provincial park controls a great deal of what we get.”
However, he added, “They do try to play ball, but their hands are tied. If they have to let the water go … they try to restrict it as much as they can.”
AECOM provided a cost window of $70,000 to $100,000 for a preliminary survey that would be “good enough for a preliminary design,” Saigh said.
AECOM would approach a study over two phases and the cost could be up to $250,000. However, Guergis said he was impressed with AECOM more than the first delegation, C.C. Tatham and Associates, which he said was more concerned with utilizing an existing study.
The next Essa budget meeting is Feb. 17.