The town of Exshaw was almost washed away by floods in June and now some residents fear a giant berm built to protect a nearby plant will make future floods even worse.
Lafarge dumped load after load of gravel along the edge of Exshaw Creek on the eastern edge of its cement plant immediately following the flood.
Residents in the hamlet worry the wall of rock will divert all the water from future floods into their community and cause even greater damage than this year's record flood.
“When you go and actually stand beside it and look down it’s angled right back to town so next big rain guess what’s gonna happen? We will be all flooded out again and it's pretty scary really,” said Margaret Blokhuis, Exshaw resident.
Lafarge says it is not a new berm and that it just rebuilt the berm that was destroyed in the flood.
Heinz Knopfel is the Lafarge plant manager and says he is simply protecting his plant and thinks the MD and province should do the same.
“So I guess really the question I would have for the residents is what is the MD and the ASRD and the council doing to reestablish and secure their side of the creek to make sure that in the future if another flood happens that they have some protection also,” said Heinz.
The province has asked Lafarge to stop construction on the berm until an environmental assessment of its impact on the waterway can be determined.
(With files from Kevin Green)
