The train bridge in Newcastle shows the rising Red Deer River prior to the flooding in Drumheller in June, 2013.
Floodway mapping first, funding second for Drumheller
When the province of Alberta announced its 70 million dollars flood mitigation funding for 21 projects on Thursday, April 2, Drumheller was left off the project list.
The Honourable Kyle Fawcett, Minister of Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resource Development, the department awarding the mitigation dollars, said the province needs to finalize the valley’s floodway map first.
“Until we have that in place, and consult with our partners, it didn’t make any sense to move forward,” the Minister said.
The Town of Drumheller, with the aid of Palliser Regional Municipal Services, has submitted a mitigation project plan to the province, and have been in ongoing discussions with the province on floodway mapping.
On current unmitigated flood maps, a significant portion of the town of Drumheller is in the floodway.
“You know, the criteria we certainly used was, first of all, which projects were able to be funded that allow us to mitigate the most amount of risk,” said Minister Fawcett.
The Village of Carbon was among those receiving money, being awarded $175,500 for flood mitigation work.
The Town of Drumheller had submitted a request of $12 million dollars into the province for mitigation projects under the Alberta Community Resiliency Program (ACRP), and understood they would be informed at the end of 2014 whether they would receive funds.
The province said this is the first allocation under the ACRP, which will see $500 million dollars distributed over a ten year period, to towns and cities in need of flood protection.
