The City of Kamloops has declared a State of Local Emergency because of erosion concerns threatening the Noble Creek Irrigation System intake.

Emergency Preparedness Manager Will Beatty says the declaration will allow the City to “urgently” shore up the water intake, north of Westsyde.

“Right now, there is what we perceive as an imminent threat to the infrastructure out there,” Beatty said, on NL Newsday, noting there is no threat to life, health, or safety at this time.

“It being city infrastructure, we have to take the necessary steps to be able to best protect it, and that is going to be by way of construction and assuring that the bank no longer erodes towards the pump station.”

“Through deep frost thawing and erosion, we’re running into issues in which we’re going to have to provide some in-stream work and in order to do so, a local state of emergency was declared at 10 o’clock and our Emergency Operations Centre was activated,” he added.

Beatty says the declaration allows the City of Kamloops to work with its partners – including Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc, the Ministry of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness, the Ministry of Forests, and engineering consultants – without having to wait for federal and provincial permits.

“There are definitely a lot of players here. We’ve consulted with all of them and these were the recommendations based on the best information that we had to be able to best protect the infrastructure in an immediate way,” Beatty said.

“Those lengthy processes sometimes can prevent the work from happening and if there wasn’t an imminent threat to the infrastructure, we would definitely be looking at that option.”

The State of Local Emergency is expected to be in place for about a week.

People will flood or erosion related concerns are being told to contact the City of Kamloops Civic Operations Call Center at 250-828-3461.