After splashing through waves of paperwork flowing back almost 40 years, officials have determined that the corrugated steel sheet of retaining wall that runs along the rocky shoreline of Lac La Biche lake, belongs to the municipality. The confirmed ownership means the municipality could be on the hook to fix the retaining wall which has recently twisted and broken in several sections along the southern shore of the lake parallel to Churchill Drive.
The 300-metre length of metal ribbing protects municipal property of the banks running down to the lake, is built on provincial shoreline and affects federally-sanctioned waters. When municipal officials were informed about the damage to the structure, they began working to find out who was responsible for the wall — and who would be paying to fix it.
Lac La Biche POST staff also sent out inquiries to levels of government regarding the wall. Canada's Fisheries and Oceans department officials said that while they do operate and maintain several structures in and around the lake, the retaining wall is not their property.
The retaining wall on the southern shoreline of Lac La Biche is not the property of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO)," said Holly Foerter, the department's regional communications director in a response sent to her by the POST in mid-June. " DFO did own a small craft harbour on the lake that was divested to the municipality in 2014, but it did not include the retaining wall in question."
Last week, the POST received documents from the provincial government showing that a licence of occupation to build the wall, along with other efforts to stabilize the banks, bed and shore of the community's namesake lake had been granted in 1983.
The licence, signed by then Town of Lac La Biche Mayor Ray Bouchard, is between the municipality and the Alberta Forestry Lands and Wildlife department. The license was initially put in place for five years and cost the municipality $25 to file. The retaining wall was built by municipal officials to stop potential erosion of the lakeside banks. Other measures to reduce erosion, including a covering mesh over a barrier of large rocks, are also in place along the same portion of lakeshore.
The cost of the project at that time was not included in the documents.
After reviewing the 37 year-old license last week, the spokesperson for Jason Nixon, the Minister of Environment and Parks said the structure belongs to the county.
"This looks like it’s the purview of the municipality. They own this structure," said Nixon's press secretary Jess Sinclair.
Representatives from Environment and Parks have also contacted Lac La Biche County officials to inform them of the document and ownership.
Ali Memon, Lac La Biche County’s Manager of Engineering Services says municipal officials have begun to work on an initial plan for the retaining wall.
"We’ve had a geotechnical engineering firm and an environmental consultant do site visits to view the wall and surrounding conditions and infrastructure. (The engineering firm) is currently putting together a revised drilling plan for geotechnical borehole analysis and report," he said. "Once they have provided the drilling plan, we will pass it along to (the environmental consultants who are responsible for attaining any required permits to complete the geotechnical drilling."
The planning work is the "first step" says Memon, toward identifying the correct rehabilitation strategy. The engineering firm's geotechnical analysis isn't expected to be completed before late autumn.
"Once that work is complete," says Lac La Biche County spokesperson Jihad Moghrabu, "the County may put this project out for a (request for proposal) to design the project and for further construction."
The wall makes up one-fifth of retaining wall structures around Lac La Biche lake. In 2017, a mapping report of the lake, identified one-and-a-half kilometres of retaining wall structures within the 167 kilometres of shoreline. Many of those structures, notes the report, are adjacent to private properties and residential developments. The portion of retaining wall in need of repair is not on privately owned property. In the same project that saw the wall built, a small, permanent dock — known as the Little Dock — along the same shoreline was removed.
In recent weeks, as heavy rains have raised the level of the lake by more than five feet in some areas, more portions of the damaged retaining wall have fallen into the waters of the lake.
When asked during an early June Lac La Biche County council meeting if the repair of the wall was a top priority in the community, the municipality's acting CAO Ken Van Buul said it could quickly become one.
"If the bank slides, so does our road in front of those residences on Churchill Drive. So sooner or later, yes, it's going to have to be a high priority."
Until the engineering and environmental work is done on the project, there is no specific budget for the job.
