'We’re having to do more': City of Saskatoon opens new storm pond
With last June’s intense rainfall event in many parts of Saskatoon, city officials are basking in the success of one of its newest storm ponds and have officially opened the community park space associated with it.
The new dry storm pond in W.W. Ashley District Park, which serves as a newly developed park and sports field during dry weather, officially opened Tuesday.
Officials said residents in the surrounding Haultain and Queen Elizabeth neighbourhoods can rest a little easier knowing there is less of a likelihood of their properties flooding during intense rainfalls.
“Even the rainfall in June was pretty unusual because it flooded this part of the city but there was almost no rain in the north so we’re having to do more and fortunately we have a lot more sophisticated data to track rainfall and track the different rainfall in different neighbourhoods,” Mayor Charlie Clark told CTV News.
The dry storm pond has already proven to be a success because during that June storm, it prevented flooding in an area of the city that historically experiences floods, according to Clark.
That June 20 rainfall which fell in just a few hours, filled the inner bowl of the park with about two metres of rain according to Russ Munro, Director of Saskatoon Water.
“That amount of water would be the equivalent to six Olympic-sized swimming pools,” he said.
The park, which is the first of nine to be completed by 2027, also provides accessible walking paths and retains recreational space and green space when not containing storm water.
A similar project in Churchill Park will be completed next fall. Then in early 2023, construction will start on a dry storm pond in Weaver Park and six more Flood Control Strategy (FCS) projects will be built between 2024 and 2027. Flood Control Strategy | Saskatoon.ca
The Federal Government has contributed $21.6 million towards Saskatoon’s FCS through the Disaster Mitigation and Adaptation Fund.
Once the FCS projects are completed, the City anticipates seeing a substantial decrease in the amount of neighbourhood flooding in the top 10 highest risk areas of Saskatoon.
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