Flood diversion project no longer based on economic worth, documents show

Signs supporting the DontDamnSpringbank.org movement are posted on fences along Springbank Road. The area is near the proposed Springbank dam and reservoir, and residents are trying the fight the province’s plan.
Photograph by: Colleen De Neve Colleen De Neve, Calgary Herald

Flood diversion project no longer based on economic worth, documents show

Critics say reservoir must make financial sense

By Matt McClure, Calgary Herald October 30, 2014

The province no longer wants projections of economic worth included in the environmental impact assessment report for a proposed $200-million river diversion project to protect Calgary from flooding....

A document obtained by the Herald shows government bureaucrats proposed in July that the report on the Springbank offstream reservoir would need a cost-benefit ratio that would assist the province’s natural resources regulator in deciding whether to approve construction.

But now provincial officials believe the Natural Resources Conservation Board only needs an assessment that estimates the project’s cost and the damages that it would mitigate during major floods to rule on whether the reservoir is in the public interest.

Landowners west of the city, who the province now says could see up to 1,169 hectares of their land expropriated to make way for the canal and reservoir, are concerned the report to the NRCB won’t specifically examine whether the project makes financial sense.

Read more here: http://bit.ly/13ptJIJ

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