The city of Merritt is gearing up for some potentially heated discussions about how the community is going to protect itself from flooding.

The details of a flood mitigation study are expected to be released this month, which acting Chief Administrative Officer Greg Lowis concedes could end up seeing certain property owners being forced to move.

“We need to decide as a community where do we want to have our dikes positioned? What kind of scale do we want to be constructing them on? How many resources do we want to be putting into this? And also, what kind of areas do we saying could still be at risk?” Lowis said.

Pressed for details last month on whether the study could mean the displacement of some property owners, Mayor Linda Brown noted the study may lead them to that conclusion.

“I’m not saying it will do that, but it may do that. And that is a possibility. And we are looking at that potential for some time in the future,” said Brown.

Speaking on the NL Noon Report, Lowis added the City and its residents will need to decide just how far they want to go, and how much money to spend.

“It is going to be a discussion with some very charged opinions because of course some people are going to be very concerned about the future of their property. And rightly so,” he added. “But it is a discussion that we need to have as a community.”

The flood study was launched earlier this year, and comes as Merritt still attempts to recover from the effects of the atmospheric river in November.

At this point it’s not clear how many properties in Merritt could be affected, but Lowis notes if properties in the Merritt flood plain do need to be expropriated, its expected the provincial government would likely end up covering the costs.

“That was generally done to given them not only the value of their property but also any repair works that they had done between the flood and the buyout,” he said.

Once the survey is completed, the city of Merritt will be submitting an application to the Treasury Board in Ottawa to finance the diking projects, and any potential costs associated with expropriating properties along the flood plains.

“[The study] will also give us a little bit of information into how wide these dikes are going to have to be which may also help determine where our housing should be,” Mayor Linda Brown added.

“That will be for citizens who don’t know whether they should build back now or not. And we haven’t been able to tell them. So this will help with that.”

Prepare for ‘high and fast water’ out of Nicola Lake

Merrittonians in low-lying areas of the city are also being told to prepare for “high and fast” water as the Nicola Dam operator announced plans to increase the water flow out of Nicola Lake.

The move – in order to manage the lake levels – will lead to an increase in the water level of the Nicola River.

The city says to expect about 48 cubic metres of water per second flowing through the Nicola River in Merritt.

“Compared to recent freshet flows, this is more water in the Nicola than we saw in 2021, but still below the approximately 57 cubic metres per second that we saw in 2020,” a city statement said.

“The City’s wastewater treatment plant is preparing for the increased flows. By taking higher amounts of water now, when we believe it can safely pass through Merritt, we create additional space in the lake to store water for upcoming weather events.”

– With files from Paul James