A number of landowners with acreage along the Chemainus River brought their frustration with the ongoing efforts to deal with the flooding and erosion in the river’s flood plain to North Cowichan’s council meeting on Sept. 4.
Colin James said the river’s delta is regularly inundated with gravel and logs, and the river’s banks are eroding, causing him to lose large sections of his property.
He said the local landowners don’t want to see the river dredged, as has been done recently, they want the log jams and the gravel removed.
“We’re not trying to create a culvert from the mountain to the sea where everything is flowing down there at a huge velocity, we’re just trying to create a situation where the river has the capacity to hold water and can shed it in higher levels,” James said. “There’s huge industrial activity going on in the watershed which creates a totally unnatural impact on the delta.”
Don Ellingham said he’s losing approximately half an acre a year to erosion and flooding.
“What are we doing as a community, as a council and a mayor to fix this problem?” he asked.
“Moving forward, we’d like to be involved in anything that can be done. Right now, we’re just spinning wheels in the mud.”
The Chemainus River has received attention from all levels of government, particularly after the atmospheric river event in 2021. That event caused significant damage to homes, farms, and businesses in the area.
Many people were displaced, roads closed, and land irreversibly altered, and another flood in 2022 forced evacuations and severely impacted homes in the area.
Studies performed for the province, Cowichan Valley Regional District, North Cowichan, and the Halalt First Nation concluded the need for better management of the watershed and work in the river to reduce the damage caused by flooding, but it has been widely acknowledged that logging operations upstream on private forestry lands have contributed significantly to the problems.
David Conway, North Cowichan’s director of subdivision and environmental services, reported to council at the meeting on Sept. 4 on the work, mostly by the province in conjunction with the Halalt First Nation, that has and is being done to help alleviate the problems on the river.
He noted that gravel and sediments have been removed from sections of the river where it was deemed necessary since 2022, flood-barrier walls have been constructed, bendway weirs are currently being built, and more work is planned in the coming years.
Coun. Chris Istace acknowledged that the projects are good, but he said it’s mostly reactive work and, after listening to the landowners, he asked what the municipality is doing to pressure the government to deal with their concerns.
He said the community benefits from the resource industry, but it is also a victim of the unfortunate impacts of the industry and their forestry practices.
“We’re being subjected to huge financial impacts as a municipality but also, as we hear, our agricultural sector is being drastically impacted as well, yet they are being given no meaningful engagement where they can actually have a say,” Istace said.
Mayor Rob Douglas said he and CAO Ted Swabey have recently met with the CVRD and the Cowichan Watershed Board to discuss the issue, and the CVRD has scheduled a meeting with Forest Minister Bruce Ralston to discuss it at the upcoming meeting of the Union of BC Municipalities.
“North Cowichan also has a meeting scheduled with the minister at the UBCM to raise the issue of the flooding on the Chemainus River and the need for more involvement of the local residents,” he said.
Swabey added he believes that, after years of North Cowichan and other local governments advocating for changes in how forest lands on Vancouver Island are managed, there will be some significant changes made in the near future that could help deal with the issues around the Chemainus River.
Coun. Tek Manhas asked if the Halalt First Nation has talked to the residents on their ongoing plans for the river, and Douglas replied that the municipality deals with the residents and shares their concerns with the Halalt.
Conway added that the province has held an open house on the issue and the residents had an opportunity to voice their frustrations there.
But Swabey said what the residents want is a voice at the table.
“They have a lot of knowledge and history and want to be involved in developing some of the solutions, and that’s understandable and we’ll work towards that,” he said.
