Would dredging Mission Creek help stop flooding?

[Lady tehMa]

https://www.castanet.net/news/Kelowna/3 ... sion-Creek

Farmer tired of government stalling on measures to prevent flooding along Mission Creek
Farmer wants creek dredged
Cindy White - Jun 16, 2022 / 4:00 am | Story: 372066

The floods have become more frequent and more extreme and farmer Ron McMillan says more needs to be done to protect people who live near Mission Creek in Kelowna.

Flood waters rushed onto his farm Tuesday, submerging about 50 acres. While the water had receded quite a bit by Wednesday afternoon, it will still likely be several weeks before the land dries out.

“The horses would normally be down there grazing, so they’ve got less land to use. I don’t know what hay I’m going to be able to produce there in August when it does dry out,” said McMillan.

“You saw fences were damaged, I can’t produce corn or vegetables, and we’re certainly going through lots of issues with supply chain right now. It would be great to have a lot of farms in full production,” but he says he simply can’t plant that land like he used to.

He wants the province, the city, or whoever is in charge, to start dredging the creek again to remove the gravel that has built up in the 30 years since the practice stopped.

“It doesn’t matter who’s been in power, all parties have been having this hands-off approach when it comes to the creeks, about cleaning them up.

“They do use an excuse, as far as I’m concerned, that it’s a fisheries issue but I don’t think that’s the case. Because we used to have lots of Kokanee in Mission Creek and now we just have nothing. So, certainly, there is no correlation between them stopping cleaning out the gravel and a rebound in the Kokanee count,” argues McMillan.

He adds there was talk of more flood protection work, including the building of dikes or berms, as part of the Mission Creek Restoration Initiative, but nothing has been done since 2016. In 2017 and 2018 there was also significant flooding along the creek, including on his farm.

He says it’s becoming all too frequent and more extreme.“And some of it’s climate change but to me, a big part of it is the way the creek is managed now by the province.”

McMillan says his home is on high ground, but he’s worried about what will happen to those who live closer to the creek and in more densely populated areas of the city if these extreme rainfall events start happening more often.

He argues that the damage to homes and infrastructure could add up to a lot more than the cost of improved flood control measures.

This is not something I know much about, but would dredging help?

It would seem to me that permanent structures in place of sandbags might help, but would that be a city thing or a landowner thing, if they did it?

[YzzzR1]

https://www.castanet.net/news/Kelowna/3 ... sion-Creek

Farmer tired of government stalling on measures to prevent flooding along Mission Creek
Farmer wants creek dredged
Cindy White - Jun 16, 2022 / 4:00 am | Story: 372066

The floods have become more frequent and more extreme and farmer Ron McMillan says more needs to be done to protect people who live near Mission Creek in Kelowna.

Flood waters rushed onto his farm Tuesday, submerging about 50 acres. While the water had receded quite a bit by Wednesday afternoon, it will still likely be several weeks before the land dries out.

“The horses would normally be down there grazing, so they’ve got less land to use. I don’t know what hay I’m going to be able to produce there in August when it does dry out,” said McMillan.

“You saw fences were damaged, I can’t produce corn or vegetables, and we’re certainly going through lots of issues with supply chain right now. It would be great to have a lot of farms in full production,” but he says he simply can’t plant that land like he used to.

He wants the province, the city, or whoever is in charge, to start dredging the creek again to remove the gravel that has built up in the 30 years since the practice stopped.

“It doesn’t matter who’s been in power, all parties have been having this hands-off approach when it comes to the creeks, about cleaning them up.

“They do use an excuse, as far as I’m concerned, that it’s a fisheries issue but I don’t think that’s the case. Because we used to have lots of Kokanee in Mission Creek and now we just have nothing. So, certainly, there is no correlation between them stopping cleaning out the gravel and a rebound in the Kokanee count,” argues McMillan.

He adds there was talk of more flood protection work, including the building of dikes or berms, as part of the Mission Creek Restoration Initiative, but nothing has been done since 2016. In 2017 and 2018 there was also significant flooding along the creek, including on his farm.

He says it’s becoming all too frequent and more extreme.“And some of it’s climate change but to me, a big part of it is the way the creek is managed now by the province.”

McMillan says his home is on high ground, but he’s worried about what will happen to those who live closer to the creek and in more densely populated areas of the city if these extreme rainfall events start happening more often.

He argues that the damage to homes and infrastructure could add up to a lot more than the cost of improved flood control measures.

This is not something I know much about, but would dredging help?

It would seem to me that permanent structures in place of sandbags might help, but would that be a city thing or a landowner thing, if they did it?

It's all about the cross sectional area at any given point in the creek and the volume of water transiting through that point. Obviously, the deeper the channel, the more water can pass through without topping the banks.

To handle excessive amounts of water, one can either lower the creek bed (dredging) or raise the banks (sandbags, dikes, concrete retaining, etc). Both accomplish the requirement to handle the excess water although one would be more intrusive on adjacent properties while the other would disrupt aquatic life for a term.

[SAILINGONE]

*When you build in a creek floodplain or on the beach there is a good change of flooding.
*When you build onto of a mountain here, there is a good change you get a lot of snow in the winter.
*When you build in a leavy forrest, there will be lots of dead leaves in the fall.
*When you build on the side of a busy street or highway it will be noisy during heavy traffic hours.
and I can go on and on

Please don't make bad personal choices a taxpayer's problem, because your problem will most likely not go away and only waste taxpayers dollars, we don't need more bureaucratic studies followed by a bunch of stupid
"gatekeepers" regulations to substitute common sense.

[swamp1967]

*When you build in a creek floodplain or on the beach there is a good change of flooding.
*When you build onto of a mountain here, there is a good change you get a lot of snow in the winter.
*When you build in a leavy forrest, there will be lots of dead leaves in the fall.
*When you build on the side of a busy street or highway it will be noisy during heavy traffic hours.
and I can go on and on

Please don't make bad personal choices a taxpayer's problem, because your problem will most likely not go away and only waste taxpayers dollars, we don't need more bureaucratic studies followed by a bunch of stupid
"gatekeepers" regulations to substitute common sense.

Wow, I want to live where you do. No earthquakes, no storms, no floods, no heat, no cold, no fires, so you must live in a perfect place. Give me a break. Why don't we just move our cities,....oh probably because we can't. So instead, lets make the best of of the situation and find ways to improve it.

[Queen K]

Would dredging not destroy Kokanee Salmon spawning grounds? Is not dredging more about bringing back the Salmon as one part of the wild food chain? Bears, Eagles, fishing and etc. would suffer greatly if we destroyed gravel beds in Mission Creek.

[swamp1967]

Would dredging not destroy Kokanee Salmon spawning grounds? Is not dredging more about bringing back the Salmon as one part of the wild food chain? Bears, Eagles, fishing and etc. would suffer greatly if we destroyed gravel beds in Mission Creek.

There are almost no Kokanee now. The hands off approach that has been happening for the last 25-30 years, has not improved things at all, but instead it has only gotten worse. The rocks are too big for the spawning in the creek. Compared to back in the 70's and even the 80's still, when gravel was removed, there was lots of spawning then.

[YzzzR1]

Would dredging not destroy Kokanee Salmon spawning grounds? Is not dredging more about bringing back the Salmon as one part of the wild food chain? Bears, Eagles, fishing and etc. would suffer greatly if we destroyed gravel beds in Mission Creek.

In the short term, Yes. But it really isn't destroying them as opposed to disrupting them. Unfortunately, silt and deposits continue to build up year over year and mitigation is key to protecting the surrounding lands and creating predictable seasonal freshet effects.

[swamp1967]

Would dredging not destroy Kokanee Salmon spawning grounds? Is not dredging more about bringing back the Salmon as one part of the wild food chain? Bears, Eagles, fishing and etc. would suffer greatly if we destroyed gravel beds in Mission Creek.

found this from the Daily Courier in 2013....

The creek population has seen modest increases in recent years while Mission Creek, which attracted about 300,000 spawners in the 1970s, is expected to draw 3,000 to 8,000 this year.

https://www.kelownadailycourier.ca/news ... f253e.html

[captkirkcanada]

cant touch the bed of a salmon bearing stream . case closed

[swamp1967]

cant touch the bed of a salmon bearing stream . case closed

No salmon and no kokanee. Habitat restoration is what is needed. Doing nothing has led to the near collapse of the kokanee.

In fact, probably nothing will happen to mission creek, until the Okanagan Lake dam at Penticton is altered to let the salmon back into Okanagan Lake and into Mission Creek. Only at that point, will something serious happen with restoration with federal money helping. So i wouldn't say case closed.

[captkirkcanada]

cant touch the bed of a salmon bearing stream . case closed

No salmon and no kokanee. Habitat restoration is what is needed. Doing nothing has led to the near collapse of the kokanee.

In fact, probably nothing will happen to mission creek, until the Okanagan Lake dam at Penticton is altered to let the salmon back into Okanagan Lake and into Mission Creek. Only at that point, will something serious happen with restoration with federal money helping. So i wouldn't say case closed.

well i didnt realize the fish issue was that bad , but at any rate dredging is the opposite of restoration. an i fully agree that restoration is whats needed and has worked in many other creeks an streams. lets hope that is the route chosen

[bob vernon]

I loved hearing the rant by a guy from Lumby the other day. His million dollar home near a creek had flooded and he was mad because the creek hadn't been dredged. He said "fish don't pay taxes". But I think that the people who harvest the fish sure do.

Would dredging the creeks help stop flooding? Maybe not building on the flood plain would help stop flooding. ALL of us pay with higher insurance premiums when development takes place near the water and it floods.

[Sparki55]

Would dredging the creeks help stop flooding? Maybe not building on the flood plain would help stop flooding. ALL of us pay with higher insurance premiums when development takes place near the water and it floods.

Then why are these lots approved to build on in the first place?

I'm a buyer beware type of guy, but when the city opens up property, then builders build on it and a homeowner comes along to buy, I don't see how the homeowner is supposed to be the expert here.

McDonald's has to put warnings on their coffee cups so people don't burn themselves. Battery manufacturers have to put warnings not to drink the battery acid. Where is the responsibility of the builder/city to deem a property safe, and if it has a potential issue, where are the warning labels?

[GordonH]

impo any houses built on a floodplain should be built on stilts a minimum of 25 cm over highest flood levels.
Potential buyers do your damn homework before purchasing in flood areas. If you don’t you only have yourself to blame.

[Bsuds]

impo any houses built on a floodplain should be built on stilts a minimum of 25 cm over highest flood levels.
Potential buyers do your damn homework before purchasing in flood areas. If you don’t you only have yourself to blame.