Cochin residents concerned about ice damage to shoreline property

A number of Resort Village of Cochin property owners along Jackfish Lake are dealing with serious damages to decks, buildings and stored boat lifts from shoreline ice damage this winter.

“It’s a phenomenon I have never seen before,” Mayor Harvey Walker said.

Due to erosion and high water levels, the ice did not adhere to the base of the lake in the fall when the water is normally shallow at the shoreline. So when fluctuating temperatures caused ice to fracture and expand on the lake, floating ice slabs pushed up onto the shoreline, causing damages.

“When the weather warmed up three or four weeks ago, that is when it really started,” Walker said.

Affected property owners who plan to have repair work done along the shoreline need to contact the Water Security Agency to request a permit first. If the work involves the beachfront, they must also obtain a permit from the Resort Village of Cochin in advance.

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Deputy Mayor David Stillar said the front retaining wall at his lakefront property was pushed up by about five feet and back by about four feet due to heaving ice.

“I noticed the wall getting moved in November with the ice coming in,” he said. “Then, just in the last week, it really popped.”

Stillar said usually the ice freezes on the shoreline in the late fall, but it was not cold enough this time. As a result, the ice slabs from the lake ended up crashing towards the shoreline, leading to the damage.

“It’s all got to be rebuilt,” he said, to prevent further erosion to the shoreline. “It turns into a big job, a lot of landscaping.”

John Mathison, who owns a cottage, saw some damage to the shoreline of his property.

“Ours is not real bad compared to some people who had structures damaged,” he said. “Ours is just the bank on the beachfront and a little bit of landscaping in behind it.”

Mathison said most people along the beach already have their applications submitted to the Water Security Agency to obtain permits to pull the ice back from the shore.

“We’re getting a permit to rework the bank a little bit so it doesn’t get eroded even more when [the ice] melts in the spring and the waves start coming in,” he said. “There is an excavator coming in. We all just booked him at the same time.”

Mathison said next week crews will start to fix the damaged shore bank, and further repairs are expected possibly towards the end of the month.

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angela.brown@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @OCoureurDesBois