By Don Urquhart, Times Chronicle
Osoyoos council has voted unanimously to join an effort by a group of municipalities led by the Region District to apply for grant funding to acquire two fully equipped Tiger Dam trailers for emergency flood mitigation.
The town joins the Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen (RDOS), the Village of Keremeos and the Lower Similkameen Indian Band in applying for Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM) grant funding to acquire the alternative to sand-bagging in combating flooding.
The proposed regional grant project worth $600,000 includes the acquisition of two fully equipped tiger dam trailers and training. These regional assets will support “preparedness and response during freshet and localized flooding events throughout the region”.
In presenting the proposal to council, Rod Risling, Osoyoos CAO said the addition of these trailers will facilitate the rapid deployment of tiger dam systems, helping to protect critical infrastructure and communities more efficiently.
The Tiger Dam tubes are capable of being stacked up to a maximum of 7.8 metres high and linked together seamlessly for kilometres. They can be virtually any length and take any shape. U.S. Flood Control Corp. photo.
Currently, the RDOS, local municipalities and First Nations typically utilize sand and sandbags through 30 sandbag centres across the region,” Risling said. However, sandbags have a limited lifespan and pose environmental challenges due to the transportation, storage, and disposal requirements after a flood event.
While sandbags will likely remain as a key tool in large regional events, the amount of material required to have on standby and environmental challenges after an event would be reduced.
The Tiger Dam system, on the other hand, offers a more sustainable and cost-effective flood mitigation solution. The dams are reusable, can be deployed and transported locally, and require minimal staff for setup and takedown, “making it a more robust alternative for flood response”.
The Tiger Dams are also modular and can be connected to create barriers of varying lengths and heights. Each proposed trailer would deploy approximately thirty 60cm by 15m (24” x 50’) dams.
The Tiger Dam tubes can be linked together seamlessly for kilometres and can be virtually any length and take any shape. U.S. Flood Control Corp. photo.
Following Risling’s presentation, Councillor Johnny Cheong asked who would have priority using the two tiger dams given the fact that flooding tends to hit more than one location at a time.
In response Risling noted it was “a good question but that hasn’t been established yet. It’s something we’re going to work on, we know that if we were to get $50,000 worth of Tiger Dams for our community it wouldn’t do anything [because of the cost of the devices]. If we were to go it alone, the amount that we would get wouldn’t really make a difference.”
The grant is part of the Disaster Risk Reduction-Climate Adaptation (DRR-CA) funding stream of the UBCM supporting the reduction of risks from future disasters due to natural hazards and climate-related risks. Most applications are generously funded at 100 per cent of eligible expenses, Risling noted.
