LAC LA BICHE - Bruno Olesen has been watching his property sink, one rainstorm at a time, for a few years now. He doesn't live near a river, or a lake. In fact, until a few years ago, he didn't think his retirement house in the middle of the Blais Resort subdivision would be in danger of repeated floods. It's in an engineered residential 60-lot subdivision in a progressive rural municipality, afterall.
"Whenever you build a residential area, you're supposed to have the proper drainage," said Olesen, who blames worn-down berms and water channels mostly for his recent flooding challenges. He also blames a lack of action from municipal officials to fix their mistakes.
"I've asked for assistance, showed them, told them, but every year for years it just kept getting ignored," he told the POST last week, midway through a steady deluge of rain with a forecast for more on the way. "It has been so frustrating."
It has also been costly. Olesen says buildings on his property have been damaged by sitting water and his home's basement has flooded. And it gets worse each time as the saturated ground sinks lower with each rainstorm.
"We have sinkholes in our yard. I used to take such good care of our lawn, but in these years, it's been sinking lower and lower," he said, explaining that the lower it sinks, the more water flows in from the poorly maintained drainage system. "It has nowhere to go."
The runoff has also affected Olesen's neighbours in the subdivision that is located on the north side of Lac La Biche lake. When it rains, he said, the water just flows through the subdivision, damaging other properties and eroding land.
See it coming
Olesen says he can practically watch the next wave of flooding as rain creates a path that leads to his doorstep.
"The water comes down the main road, and then down the ditch and then over that and it comes right back into our yard," he said, adding that a municipal path leading south from his property is regularly submerged due to poor run-off engineering, and adds to the flooding on his property.
Olesen moved into the home, one of 16 permanent residences in the subdivision, seven years ago. The flooding troubles began about five years ago. That's when he started asking municipal officials for help — and got more of that sinking feeling.
"They kept shrugging them off. They'd say, 'it's in the budget, in the budget, in the budget ... but it never got done."
On the radar
In recent weeks, however, Lac La Biche County councillors have been taking notice. Area councillor Sterling Johnson recently visited Olesen and saw the damage.
"We have to do something for these residents," said Johnson, suggesting some emergency ditch digging. "This has been going on for years."
Lac La Biche County Omer Moghrabi agreed, saying he's been aware of drainage issues at the subdivision for at least 10 years.
The municipality's Public Works manager says some of the hurdles are due to environmental challenges.
"It is a touchy thing when you are playing with water issues," he said, expressing concerns about diverting water. "There is a potential to create a swale out there to let some of the water go ... we are hung up right now for environmental approval ... we have to be careful that we are not going to be just dropping more water somewhere else."
Shapka suggested examining a fix during the winter months when water-associated projects are more permissible by environmental guidelines.
Olesen is hopeful that some remedies can be found. For now, however, he's just happy that he's being heard.
"We're happy that Sterling has our back. It's the first time we've had somebody listening," he said, adding that he will continue pushing until something is done. "I"m not going to stop pushing for this. We need to see something done."
Johnson says that getting the issue before council and administration is just the first step. He doesn't want to see the Blais Resort issue washed away in a flood of other issues. And he knows that residents won't let that happen either.
"They will come to council as a big lobby group because they are fed up," he said.
After more than a week of steady rainfall, which has lead to municipal and provincial emergency alerts for overland flooding in many areas of the community, Lac La Biche County officials are expecting more focus on water issues in the coming weeks.
