By News

Poor drainage undermines homes near Christopher Lake

Jul 1, 2014 | 2:22 AM

Excess rain is pooling in one yard along Jacobson Drive, flooding crawl spaces, undermining neighbour’s cabins and tearing up property at Bells Beach near Christopher Lake.

The yard is in a low spot and the road going north and south is high, causing the water to drain down and pool beside it like a dam. The water then overflows, draining into other resident’s yards towards the lake.

It’s not the first time it’s happened either, according to resident John Bosker.

“Over the years the (Lakeland) R.M. has been neglecting to fix the problem,” said Bosker. “We want the R.M. to have a permanent fix … the issue is the water, and we’ve got to move it.

If they don’t move it, the cabins will be undermined, explained Bosker. One of Bosker’s neighbours, who wasn’t home, already had his crawl space flooded completely.

ON AIR FOR HEALTH CARE

'A complete home run': Radiothon raises over $280K for BUH lab upgrades in 12 hours

15h ago

Wanted Man

Beauval RCMP searching for man wanted on firearm charges

18h ago

drugs

Two arrested in La Ronge for cocaine possession

20h ago

“He’s at the point I think he can’t do anything with his cabin anymore. He can’t even lift it; it’s flooded right out. It’s a disaster, and the neighbour next to him has got the same situation.”

The road isn’t in much better shape, agreed Bosker’s neighbour Cliff Krivak.

“They grade our road and within three days it’s full of potholes because all this water is here,” explained Krivak. 

If the R.M. put in a culvert across the road using the slope and spot where the water’s pooling as a drain, it would alleviate a lot of problems, he said.

“I’ve been here 18 years, and I been seeing it go off and on all the time and this is always the spot it happens, right here,” he said.

“Naturally, the water’s going to find its own level. (Putting in a culvert) is going to help everybody here to get rid of this water as quickly as we can.”

Such a culvert would have to cut through private property though. Trees and land, some of it near septic tanks, would have to be dug up, which some of the residents don’t want, said Bosker.

Instead, the solution is to put a culvert running down the road leading the water into a reserve, but because of the expense the R.M. hasn’t done it, said Bosker.

Although work crews are pumping the water out into the lake, there’s no final decision yet on how they’re going to fix the problem permanently, said Ernest Locke, public works manager with the R.M. of Lakeland.

“Our water table is way high and we have water showing up in places where it’s never been an issue before,” said Locke. “Where there have been minor issues, we’ve got major issues. So we’re doing the best we can.

“We’re trying to find a solution, and I’m hoping very strongly, because as everyone can see there is a problem, that we will have one that works and solves the issue once and for all.”

news@panow.com

On Twitter: @brynhadubiak