Water still being pumped out of Burdett

Justin Seward

Commentator/Courier

A contractor has been in Burdett for almost two weeks since the flooding began as a part of the mitigation efforts to protect the wastewater infrastructure, according to County of Forty Mile’s director of emergency management Stewart Payne.
“On the southwest corner of Burdett is a landlock wetland,” said Payne.
“The run-off filled it and overflowed into Burdett. The first thing it comes to is our lift station. We put a berm around the lift station and the second thing it comes to is residences. Basically the pumping activity was to pull water away from the lift station and the risk of residences.”
Mitigation efforts were still ongoing because in order to prevent additional run-off from coming into the hamlet, the county shut down a culvert due to water being backed up and flowed into a farmers agricultural land.
“What’s been happening yesterday (April 24), today (April 25) and until it’s done is that we’re slowly opening that culvert and we’re pumping out water as it comes into the town,” he said.
“It’s landlock slew. So on dry years the wetlands fills up and evaporates all by itself. But on really wet years, a significant snow melt or rain, it fills up and has to be mitigated.”
He added that the county is working on a drainage system, which will accommodate from year to year but has not been put in place yet.
The contractor was on site until April 26 at the latest.
There was $130,000 already spent in the hamlet for pumping and every additional day will run over $10,000.
Water was still being pumped, while 52 of the 82 county roads had been opened as of April 30.
Each of the flooding locations has a project number and being tracked on cost and repairs. The hope is the government will release a disaster recovery program so costs can be claimed back, said Payne.

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