Urgent Need for Flood Mitigation for our Bow Basin River Communities.

Millions of dollars have been spent since the 2013 flood to study this problem and we are wasting valuable resources and time debating the superiority of two inadequate options: instead of uniting all forces to find the best solution, we are pitting neighbour against neighbour. The public are being told that the 'experts' have chosen and recommended the Springbank Off-Stream Reservoir, when in fact no mention is made of it in the report given at the September 2015 Water Collaborative Meeting where the reports of the Flood Recovery Task Force, consisting of a wide variety of experienced water managers, experts and decision makers from the Bow River Basin, presented their findings. It was suggested that McLean Creek might be investigated further as an option for the Elbow River. The 2015 Flood Mitigation Task Force advised that 'This project clearly showed that a systemic, watershed-based approach is essential....... All mitigation options will affect the watershed; they must function to build the natural resilience of the watershed and allow for sound water management under flood, drought and normal conditions.' Unfortunately the Government of Alberta chose to focus only on the Elbow River  and hired consultants to look at only two options – SR1 and MC1,  The Dutch consultant firm (Deltares) was commissioned to choose between the two. Deltares considered SR1 the more preferred option of the two, with the caveat of liabilities provided under "Additional Considerations", which warned against the dangers of dam over-capacity close to communities, yet the government decided to go ahead with this project anyway, despite its lack of protection for the Downtown and the many other communities devastated by the 2013 flood. Attached is an information sheet, regarding the upstream Tri-River Joint Reservoir of Alberta proposal, which was submitted to the new Alberta government in June 2015 and summarily rejected despite it fulfilling the stated objectives of the Flood Mitigation Task Force. We would ask that you, after reading the TRJR Information Sheet, thoroughly review the www.preventingalbertafloods.ca website, paying particular attention to the information from experts such as Dr. John Pomeroy - who recently received a $77.8 million grant from the Federal government to study Global Futures: The Effects of Climate Change on our Water Resources - and links to reports from many other experts. We think you will agree that water is a priceless resource and it seems the public is putting their faith in the best decisions being made by unnamed `experts' and the government that backtracked on its promise to not carry out the Springbank project (yet has not provided to the public the information it based this decision on). However, if you will also study www.yyccares.ca and see what disastrous, damaging decisions are somehow passing despite provincial Environmental Assessment processes, we think you will agree it is time the public started to pay attention as the processes currently in place are failing Albertans. We rely very much on the media, our investigative reporters and talk show hosts to inform us of what's happening in our province, as well-advertised public notices and transparent, thorough consultation processes seem to empty terms. Unfortunately, the only time we hear lately from environmentalists (in the media) is when they object to pipelines, but the REAL environmentalists (citizens and professionals alike), who are trying to have their voices heard about the great threat to our headwaters, watersheds and wetlands are facing, are not being heard. Why do you think this is? Unfortunately, any of the public who disagree with these decisions are being forced to use the courts, at great personal expense, to try to have thorough and meaningful assessments done. We have a world-class solution sitting under our noses, yet we continue to throw good money after bad, at tax-payer expense. And we will all be impacted by the consequences: let us look to California and Houston for those lessons learned, instead of pushing down the same, well-worn path. We are hoping you will thoroughly study this water management issue and contact your representatives in the three levels of government to ask for a feasibility study for TRJR - the TRJR Info Sheet can also be found at the following link: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5949a864be659412fad09414/t/59a3b1e14c0dbf71dd620c3f/1503900193628/TRJR+Proposal_Info++Sheet_Aug2017.pdf