Mitigation efforts continue five years after Taber overland floods

LETHBRIDGE — It's been five years since the Municipal District and Town of Taber declared a state of emergency due to overland flooding in the area.

In that time, the M.D. and the town, along with other municipalities in the region, have been working on multiple projects to make sure this doesn't happen again.

"Many of the employees who were here at the time who had been here many, many years say they've never seen water move like it did in 2018," said Merrill Harris, Reeve for the Municipal District of Taber.

The M.D. and Town of Taber issued the state of emergency on March 28, 2018.

The flooding was caused by a record snowfall that began to melt with nowhere to go.

"North of town, we had some buildings in a bit of valley that were lifted off their foundations and were floating around in the water," Harris said.

"Down around Stafford Lake, we had one evening where the fire department had to go rescue some people from their homes because the water was coming, surrounding their homes and inundating their homes with water."

The town was also at risk of having their water treatment plant contaminated, which would have affected the majority of residents in the area.

"The water was getting very, very close and there was going to be concern that the water would breach the walls and therefore would impact our water quality," said Meghan Brennan, emergency information officer the Town of Taber.

"We worked very, very quickly to maintain ditches and berms to make sure that didn't happen."

Today, projects like the Horsefly Regional Emergency Spillway, which broke ground earlier this month, have been fast-tracked to prevent overland flooding like we saw in 2018 from happening again.

"The horsefly spillway was in the works but it really became reinforced and a real push happened after 2018 floods to get this project done," Harris told CTV News.

Once completed, it will divert overland floodwaters and storm-water runoff from the St. Mary River Irrigation District’s main canal to the Oldman River.

Nine municipalities, including the M.D. and Town of Taber, Lethbridge County, Cypress County, Medicine Hat and more, came together to make the $47-million project a reality.

"Our municipality is very thrilled to be a part of the horsefly regional spillway along with our fellow municipalities," Brennan said.

"What affects one of us affects all of us, of course, so it was imperative that we were part of that project."

"It's taken a lot of work by everybody to get that many municipalities onside, working together for a common cause," Harris added.

Both the town and municipal district are hopeful that the work done, and being done, will help avoid a reoccurrence of what was referred to as a once-in-a-century flood.

"All of us working together will make sure that if flooding ever occurs in the future, that we're ready for it and we're prepared and we did the work after that happened to make sure that what happened in 2018 won't happen again," Brennan said.

Phase 1 of the Horsefly Regional Emergency Spillway Project is set to be completed in the summer of 2024.