Prerequisite work, to determine berm alignment and clearing vegetation in these areas, continues throughout the Drumheller Valley as engineers begin preliminary designs.
Deighen Blakely, senior water resources engineer with Kerr Wood Leidal Associates Ltd. is one of the main consultants involved in this step of the design phase and is very familiar with Drumheller and the Red Deer River.
“We’re very fortunate in Drumheller as the province of Alberta did a flood inundation study,” Blakely told the Mail.
Previously, Blakely was operations manager for Alberta Environment and was directly involved in management of existing flood mitigation systems throughout the valley.
Blakely is also well-versed with flood mitigation, having been involved in writing the flood response manual for the City of Calgary.
She notes the first step designing berms is to determine the preliminary alignments, and Blakely adds some of these alignments have been completed due to the number of berms already in place along the Red Deer River.
Borehole drilling, which is being carried out throughout the Drumheller Valley, is part of this next step. While the drilling will help with potential new berm alignments, it will also help with existing systems. The information gathered from existing structures will help determine whether there are any “pockets of unsuitable material,” and identify ground conditions so engineers can calculate slope and height accordingly.
As berms need to be on the river side of buildings within flood areas, Blakely notes riparian vegetation may be impacted.
“Bio-engineering, combining trees, shrubs, and plants together, definitely is happening in this project. The issue is where trees are located in the dike area itself,” Blakely said. She explains roots can cause voids in the dikes, which can cause further damage to the structure and impact flood mitigation.
“For all these reasons, we avoid larger vegetation on or close to the dike,” she says.
While this may be a concern for Drumheller residents, each tree slated for removal will be replaced with five new trees or large vegetation to maintain carbon sequestration along the river-though this new vegetation will be replanted throughout the community and not necessarily in the same area of removal.
Blakely notes engineering firms are wrapping up the conceptual first phase, and the next step is a preliminary design phase which will identify “stormwater outfalls and utilities” as well as finalizing slope and determining setbacks from both buildings and the river.
Landowners directly impacted by berm alignments will be contacted individually by land agents as designs advance. The Flood Mitigation Office asks for patience as they reach out to these individuals to discuss privately how each landowner will be impacted.

Despite decreased hospitalizations and ICU admissions, the provincial government announced on Monday, March 22 they would not be moving into Step 3 of the phased reopening plan.
Alberta’s Minister of Health Tyler Shandro joined Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Deena Hinshaw during the regular COVID-19 update to make the announcement restrictions will remain in place for places of worship, adult and team sports, movie theatres, museums, art galleries, casinos and bingo halls, and private indoor social gatherings.
“This is a significant step that would touch every part of our province; it would also create new opportunities for the virus to spread in our communities,” Minister Shandro said during the update.
Although hospitalizations are below 300, the number of hospitalizations have risen recently. Minister Shandro reiterated the province would only be able to move forward into Step 3 when hospitalizations are below 300 and “on a clear downward trajectory.” He notes hospitalizations are projected to rise above 300 in the coming days, calling it “irresponsible” and “unfair” to ease restrictions at this time to reinstate them “in a few days’ time”.
“Vaccinations are the path out of the pandemic,” Minister Shandro stated.
As of Monday, March 22 more than 93,000 eligible Albertans-including 10,625 from the Central Health Zone, which includes Drumheller, according to a representative from Alberta Health Services-have been fully immunized with two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.
More than 487,000 doses have been administered across the province; this number does not include those doses administered at the more than 250 pharmacies across the province which were given the green light to administer the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine starting on Monday, March 15.
Local pharmacy Riverside Value Drug Mart was one of the eligible pharmacies and administered 300 doses of the Moderna vaccine. However, manager Martina Morrison told the Mail, “We are currently waiting on resupply at this time due to federal government shortages.”
Case numbers are on a slow decline following a surge which saw active cases surpass previous highs from November 2020 and prompted members from the Canadian Red Cross to attend the Drumheller Institution to assist with an outbreak among inmates.
Although cases are on the decline, the Town of Drumheller currently has the third highest active case rate per 100,000 population across the province, behind Mackenzie County and Municipal District of Opportunity No. 17.

As of Monday, March 22 there are 61 active cases and 291 recovered cases for the Town of Drumheller; this includes 13 active and 150 recovered cases at the Drumheller Institution. There is also one active case in Wheatland County, four in Kneehill County, and six in Starland County.