River rips
up Dutch

Valley

Stories by Jeff Nagel
TERRACE -—~ When the Great
“Flood comes it will wash Dutch
Valley right off the map.

‘That’s not some biblical
prophesy — it’s a dead certainty

'. in-the minds of Arnie Appels and

several other homeowners in the
tiny. pastoral community off
Kalum Lake Drive,

Appels has watched the angry

‘waters of the Kalum River eat

through a couple of neighbouring
properties. And now the river has
Slarted on his 60-acres of farm-
land.

“Our pumphouse is in danger
right now,” he says. ‘The next
high water I’m sure it will be
| gone.”

The river has completely swal-
lowed a neighbouring 40-acre
parcel of land.

“Now it’s starting to cut into
our land,’ Appels says. ‘‘Some-
thing’s got to be done. I’ve got
too much to lose,”

“] predict they’re going to have
the old cemetary washing right

_ down the river,”’ adds Dutch Val-

ley oldtimer Ted Hamer, who has
watched the work of the river for
‘more than 60 years.

Bill, Kennedy, another flood-
stricken Dutch Valley property
owner, pins the blame on Colum-
bia Cellulose, a long-defunct log-
ging company that ran logs down
the Kalum River in the late
1950s.

To keep the logs from getting
stuck in the side channels, the
company closed off all the over-
flow channels.

That caused slight changes in
the course of the river, causing it
to now cat away — instead of
deposit — the fine silt of Dutch
Valtey’s farmland.

_ “They promised when they
closed those channels that that
they’d open them up again when
they were all done,” Kenned
sayézit‘But they never did. Ant
we ‘re going to flood again and
again and again if this isn’t
fixed.”’

“‘There’s real good riverbottom
land here. And it’s just washing
away.”

Kennedy believes the channels

JERE Ha

The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, November 11, 1992 - Page AS

DUTCH VALLEY residents slog through last year's floodwaters, Homeowners there say the river

has washed away some land there — and will take more — if prompt action isn't taken.

could be reopened during the
summer with no danger to fish
eges, but opposition to that plan
is expected from the Department
of Fisheries and Oceans,

The communily has been
flooded repeatedly in the last
couple of years.

*T’ve lived here since 1958 and
we’ve never used to have it like
this,” he. fecalls. We'd et the
odd flood before, "78 ‘bit nothing
like this.?? oe! 9 Uys

Skeena MELA Helmut Gies-
brecht says some technicians are
looking at whether reopening a
channel is feasible. He said he
hopes to find out some answers at
a meeting in a couple of weeks.

HIGH WATER: The highway system is vulnerable to erosion

avery time sudden ralns tun local creeks to torrents.

If it is feasible, he said, the next
step would be to determine
whether its worth the possible
cnvironmental damage to fish
habitat.

‘Until that’s done we're not
prepared to give our approval
without knowing what the effects
are going to be,"’

That could be the same brick
wall Lakelse Lake residents have
Tumup.against.: 34: Gl (hn
vw Phey-blame a grave -bar-oir the
Lakelse River at Herman’s Creck
for flooding at the lake and their
efforts to have. it removed have
been consistently shot down by
fisheries biologists.

Rob Brown, a fisherman and
staunch opponent of any flood-

control measures on the Lakelse,
says logging in crecks above the

lake bas more to do with flooding .

there than the gravel bar on the
river.

He said one side of the Wil-
liams Creek watershed has been
**stripped clean.”

“Tt should be abundantly clear
to anyone with a brain that if
there's
contributing. to looding : at ,
Lakélse, ‘W'S logging in the: Upper
watershed -— not the bar at

Herman Creek,’

Residents maintain any work to
reduce high water levels could
incan a big difference for many of
the affected homeowners.

HE WICKED WATERS

PEP stingy
on flood aid

TERRACE — Victoria has only
sticks, not carrots, fo persuade
lakeshore homeowners to flocd-
proof their houses.

Provincial Emergency Program
spokesman Karen McDougall
says the province has no budget
to subsidize or catry out pre-
veutative work to reduce damage
due to flooding.

“Tt’s kind of like a Pandora's
Box,’’ she said. “‘Where do you
draw the line when you start
looking at prevention.”

But homeowners do face the
threat of flood relief assistance
being cut off if emergency pro-
pram officials decide flooding
here has become an annual event.

Residents who are able to raise
their houses or take other pre-
ventative action are expected to.

“Vf we find an area is repeated-
ly flooding then we ask a lot
more questions,’” she said,

Compensation, McDougall said,
is provided in the case of dis-
asters that can’t be planned for.

Although Lakeise Lake has
seen high water for a few con-
seculive years, lake residents
aren’t yet facing any cut off of
flood relief,

“*They may flood all the time,’’
McDougall said. ‘‘But as far as
PEP is concemed, the only iime
we have actually provided any as-
sistance to Lakelse specifically
was 1978 and now.”’

Flooding here in September
prompted the filing of 33
disaster-relic£ claims, she said.

So far money has been paid out
to 26 of the claimants, totalling
$164,000, she said, and most of
those claims were from the lake.

Last year’s flood produced 13
PEP. claims.

Every year in the last six years
there have been flooding claims
from somewhere in the Terrace
area. But September's fload was
the first time since 1992 that PEP
received large numbers of claims
from Lakelse-

‘We haven't had flooding to

~ time,’’ McDougall said.

‘She says flooding'hete"isn’ tas”
big a concern as it isin some of
the more heavily populated areas
of the province,

‘Terrace is one of the nicest
areas to have floods because it’s
so sparsely populated.’’

Flood season brings
out the scapegoats

TERRACE — The scenario is
typical.

Houses are being flooded.

Homeowners are mad.

And it could all be solved if
someone in government just had
the guts ta do something.

Tom Chamberlin has scen it all
before.

A hydrologist by training, he
worked all over the province be-
fore becoming the environment
ministry’s regional director,
based in Smithers.

He says the battles to have pre-
ventative flood work done at
Lakelse Lake, Dutch Valley and
Copper River flats aren’t unique.

‘Every town and every region
has the same set of problems and
a similar set of perceived solu-
tions,”* says Chamberlin.

It’s natural for flooded
homeowners lo want to find a
single cause to the problem, and a
corresponding quick fix.

‘We all like to have
scapegoats,’ he says. “If you
talk to the people in: Smithers
who are being flooded on Tyhee
Lake, you'll discover it’s all the
beavers’ fault. We just have to
get rid of the beaver dams.”’

In many cases the residents do
have a point, he says. But un-
fortunately, most such flooding is
the result of a combination of fac-
tors — not just one.

Rare exceptions are events like
the Tseax lava flow that changed
the course of the Nass River.

“We all like to have
scapegoats. If you talk to
the people in Smithers who
are being flooded on Tyhee
Lake, you'll discover it’s
all the beavers’ fault. We
just have to get rid of the
beaver dams.”

But fingering one likely suspect
allows the people affected to ig-
nore the brutal reality — that
their homes are built on a flood
plain and they will continue to
pay the price for that into the fu-
ture.

‘We have a tendency to build
in places where there shouldn’t
be buildings,’’ he says. ‘Then we
put dikes on pieces of river that
shouldn't be there and that trans-
ports the problem to somewhere

else.””

The present flooding problem
serves to ‘‘illustrate the folly of
building structures and roads on
places that are subject to Mlood-
ing,” he says,

People naturally resist attempts
to conirol where they want to
build, Chamberlin says.

Therefore the real blame for

such problems lies with
municipalities, which — until
recently — have shown little

commitment to proper floodpla-
ing planning.

As for September’s flooding,
Chamberlin doesn’t sce it as
being exceptional or historically
unusual.

‘It's no more than a five-year
interval cvent,”” he said.

A five-year event is the largest
flood that can be expected on
average over the course of five
years,

And he docsn’t buy the percep-
tion of many people that flooding
is on the increase around Terrace.

It’s often nol the flooding that’s
becoming a bigger problem, be
says, but the increasing number
of people affected as more people
build on the Boodplain.

LETTERS

TO THE TERRACE STANDARD

He’s no
monster

Dear Sir:

[ read with interest the ictter
from John How in last weck’s
The Terrace Standard,

While J am not sure what Mr.
How’s motives are for attack-
ing Preston Manning, I would
like to make the following
points:

1. Mr. Manning is not a
‘Frankensteinian Monster.’

2. The Reform Party did not
take the ‘no’ position on the
referendum __ lightly. We
listened to Canadians for three
weeks prior to taking a stand.

3. Political parties by their
nature solicit members and
donations, What is wrong with
that, Mr. How? We respect Mr.
How’s opinion. We understand
that he is happy with the status
quo.

For those who favour the
current political situation in
Canada, the Reform Party is
not for you,

However a growing number
of Canadians do not share Mr.
How’s thoughts.

Some people feel that our

Parliamentary system does not
reflect the wishes of Cana-
dians,
' Some people feel that our
justice system needs to be
fixed to make the streets safe
once again,

Some people feel that our na-
tional debt is totally out of

control; that governments
should be made to balance
their budgets,

Some people feel that all Ca-
Tiadians should have equal
rights,

Some people feel that we
have far too much government
in Canada.

Those people are Reformers.
They make up the fastest
growing political party in Can-
ada.

They were also the only fed-
eral voice for 54 per cent of
Canadians and 67 per cent of

Pian a is a fACHOFs vidhat scale. like '78 — in a long vy} nBpitisi Catdinbidak aii the:

Teferendum campaign. , ne
Lore Sexton, |
Terrace, B.C.

Save all
insects

Dear Sir:

After reading heartrending
Iciters in your paper in recent
months about puppies stranded
on a Skeena island and aban-
doned kittens behind the dog
pound, I have decided to move
-to the animal rights side.

This issue was epitomized
recently, when I heard an
animal rights activist ques-
tioned on the radio which he
would save if he saw both his
son and his dog drowning,

He replied that the dog had
the same rights as the boy and,
while he did not come right out
and say the dog would come
first, 1 got the distinct impres-
sion that his young lad had bet-
ter take swimming lessons.

[had a little trouble with that
one, but then I got to thinking
back about my boys and my
dogs. At least the dog never
took off with my tools or
wrecked my skidoo! Heck,
maybe the guy is right!

Well, being a man of action I
‘felt I had to get involved. But
where? There are an awful lot
of animals in the world, Some
are very well looked alter, es-
pecially if they look cute or if
they are big. The seals have
Brigitte Bardot and a whole
raft of luminaries.

Con’t Page A8

The
stari

Jearning how to read. .

The Start is* for people “>: vate company in 1988,

Closing

The Thornhill tree nurs-
ery is closing.

It will close in 1994,

The nursery grows see-
dlings.

But fewer seedlings are
needed now.

The nursery used to be
owned by the govern-
‘ment... -

It was bought by a pri-

No poverty

The Jady in the picture

is Pam Fleming.

She works for End
Legislated Poverty in
Vancouver.

That group wants to end
poverty.

‘It says poor people need
more help.

‘It says companies
should pay their fair

share.

want to stop poverty.

Pam says the minimum
wage should be raised.

She says it should be
$9.05 an hour.

Pam was in
Tecently.

She helped form a local
group. It. will fight
poverty,

Pam says people have to
wotk together if they

Terrace