Stilling basin upgrades at the Conestogo Dam will wrap up this year, but GRCA officials are still unsure how they will fund the construction of a $20-million emergency spillway at the dam.
“I’m hoping there will be a better solution that won’t cost as much money,” Keith Murch told Mapleton council last week.
Murch, the Grand River Conservation Authority’s assistant CAO, said the authority could possibly spread out the cost over 10 years to lessen the impact on annual municipal levies.
Yet he also hinted the GRCA is looking for “alternatives” to the spillway project, which was proposed in response to provincial requirements. It would help prevent a worst-case scenario in which, during a severe weather event, water would flow over the top of the dam and cause it to collapse.
The proposed 1km-long channel, which will be located at the south end of the dam and measure two to three metres deep and 60m wide, will run from the Conestogo reservoir around the dam and into the river, several hundred metres downstream. It will be concrete lined in a few spots but for the most part will appear natural and lined with grass. It will include at least one bridge for traffic along County Road 11.
GRCA officials have in the past explained the mouth of the spillway will be closed over with concrete blocks and other materials, which would have to be removed with a backhoe in the event it is ever needed.
Two years ago officials said they expect the spillway to be completed by 2015, but they also expressed concerns about funding – and it appears nothing has yet changed.
Unlike the $2.8-million price tag for the stilling basin work, which was divided evenly between the GRCA and the Ministry of Natural Resources through its Water and Erosion Control Infrastructure program (WECI), there is no secured funding for the spillway.
Even a 50:50 funding scenario through the WECI – spread out over two years – is very unlikely, as that would leave the program with a zero balance for the other 35 conservation authorities in Ontario (WECI has a maximum annual total of $5-million).
