Jim Bailey wants the city to think of other ways to handle stormwater management.
Bailey is one of the speakers at the North Shore Remedial Action Plan open house at the Prince Arthur’s Landing Baggage Building Monday. He’s also the Thunder Bay and Nipigon Remedial Action Plan coordinator.
The open house focuses on issues of contamination and pollution problems within the Thunder Bay harbour and the efforts to fix them.
“What we’re suggesting is a softer approach,” Bailey said. “Perhaps there are ways of storing a vast quantity of water in wetlands in the watershed to avoid flooding situations. I think the likelihood of adopting these approaches is quite high.
“In one year, we’ve had large, extreme weather events not only in Thunder Bay but also Duluth and Wawa.”
More pipes, pavement and deeper ditches might not be enough, he added.
“We need to look at other measures to ensure that water is stored in areas that it won’t do damage.”
He said it’s difficult to know if the city would have received as much damage from the May 28 flooding if these other methods to deal with stormwater were in place.
Having a more environmentally friendly stormwater approach could also help prevent contaminants from running into Lake Superior.
Bailey said Lake Superior is in good shape compared to the lower lakes but there’s still challenges in keeping it healthy.
Robert Stewart, supervisor for the Thunder Bay and Nipigon Remedial Action Plan, said for the past few years there’s been no formal plan to deal with stormwater.
Stewart said the city’s official plan and bylaws covers some of the stormwater management but the strategy now being put together should be a more formalized approach.
“The push now is actually using the term ‘stormwater’ and look at ways of protecting streams and coming up with a plan for streams and rivers in the larger city,” he said.
“Stormwater is one of those problems that is accumulative and based on behaviour. There hasn’t been a lot of formal stormwater legislation and regulation although the federal and provincial government encourages it.”
He added that he wants people to know that there’s momentum to look at storm water management and that it’s a good way to look at protecting the lake.
The open house continues Monday from 4 to 8 p.m.
