Town of Canmore

Mountain Creek Hazard Mitigation

Seasonal High Water Monitoring

After the flooding of 2013, the Town of Canmore created a Mountain Creek Hazard Mitigation Program. One element of this program was to get short-term mitigation in place in time for 2014 spring run-off. This was completed in most of Canmore’s mountain creeks in May 2014. Our focus is now on long-term mitigation. While significant work has been done on many creeks, Cougar Creek the most dramatic, the work completed to date was meant to protect against an event of similar size. There have been larger events in the past and the goal of the program is to install infrastructure that protects the community against these potential larger events that may occur in the future.

Hazard & Risk Map - Canmore's Mountain Creeks

Cougar Creek

Landscape Completion Summer 2018


Debris Flood Retention Structure

  1. The pdf Environmental Impact Assessment Report (130.63 MB) was submitted to Alberta Environment and Parks (AEP) in July 2016 and is currently being reviewed.  
  2. AEP has sent the Town Supplemental Information Requests (SIR) in December 2016. The Town has submitted to AEP the pdf SIR 1 Response Package (64.12 MB) in June 2017.  The Town has also submitted pdf Post-Submission Clarifications (338 KB) in July 2017.
  3. AEP has sent the Town Supplemental Information Requests (SIR) 2 in October 2017.  The Town has submitted to AEP the pdf SIR 2 Response Package (14.38 MB) in December 2017.  Moreover, the Town has also submitted an pdf EIA Project Update (7.48 MB) in December 2017 which describes design changes made to the Structure since the submission of the EIA.
  4. AEP has sent the Town Supplemental Information Requests (SIR) 3 in March 2018.  The Town has submitted to AEP the pdf SIR 3 Response Package (303 KB) in March 2018.
  5. The pdf EIA (226 KB) has been deemed complete by AEP on March 23, 2018.
  6. The Town has applied to the NRCB and AEP for the construction of the Structure on April 11, 2018 and the NRCB had provided the following pdf Notice of Application (119 KB) .
  7. The Dam Safety submission was submitted to AEP in August 2016 and is being reviewed.

 

Peaks of Grassi (X,Y,Z) Creeks and Echo Canyon Creek 

  1. The Town received funding to be able to complete the hazard and risk assessment of X, Y, Z creeks (above the Peaks of Grassi) and Echo Creek Canyon (near Alpine Club of Canada).
  2. A consultant has been selected and the project was awarded on April 2nd, 2018. 
  3. The consultant will be undertaking field work during the week of May 7th, 2018 and during the week of June 4th, 2018.  In May, you can expect to see a few people walk the fan areas of the creeks, as well as further upstream in the channel.  Visual inspections, measurements and dendrochronology will be undertaken at that time.  In June, a small test trenching program will be undertaken in the Peaks of Grassi area.  A small rubber tracked excavator will be used to dig down 2-3m in several areas to expose and record the different layers of soils, rock and ashes deposited over hundreds of years.  The test trenching helps recreate past events to better inform the hazard assessment.  The trenches will be backfilled with native material and re-seeded with native grass mix.  The test trench locations have been chosen to minimize the impact on vegetation.
  4. Council presentation of the results, as well as a public presentation with Q&A session, are currently planned for the fall of 2018.  The project should be completed in early 2019.

  pdf PDF map (1.05 MB) of the fans and test trenches locations.


Pigeon Creek

January 2018:

  1. All the work involving the Town of Canmore is now complete. This includes the hazard and risk assessments, as well as the Option Analysis.
  2. The short-term mitigation work, led by the MD of Bighorn will be completed by summer 2018.

Stone Creek

April 2017:

  1. All phases of work on Stone Creek are now complete. The long-term mitigation work will be undertaken at a later date still to be determined.

Stoneworks Creek

January 2018:

  1. Design work of the Stoneworks Creek long-term mitigation phase 1 is now under review. This first phase is to protect existing development.
  2. Construction work of phase 1 is currently planned for 2018/2019.

Three Sisters Creek

July 2018:

  1. The design of the flood rehabilitation and mitigation of Three-Sisters Creek, between the lower pedestrian bridge and the Bow River, is complete.

  2. The construction project has been awarded to Ironclad and construction should start in August 2018.

  3. Construction is expected to be complete in the fall of 2018.

  4. The work includes:

                    - Armoring of the creek banks damaged in 2013 with large rock rip rap placed in an interlocking manner (stone pitching)

                    - Stone pitching of the pedestrian bridge abutments and a small section of creek bank upstream of the bridge

                    - Removal of some trees directly upstream of the pedestrian bridge to minimize future culvert and bridge blockage issues by trees

                    - Adding a missing lock block directly upstream of the parkway culvert

                    - Stone pitching a section of the curved bank downstream of the parkway culvert

                    - Re-seeding the area with deep rooted grasses to increase resiliency

  5. The Three-Sister Parkway and the multi-use pathway will be closed intermittently during construction. Minor delays are to be expected during this time.

      pdf PDF of the public notice (474 KB)  that includes a location map.

     

Other Creeks

January 2018:

  1. The hazard and risk assessment of Stones Canyon Creek will be completed by end of 2018.
  2. A private developer has undertaken the studies of the Smith Creek area.

More Information on Steep Creeks 

To read more on Steep Creeks in the Municipal Development Plan pdf click here (4.11 MB) and reference section 3.5. To view the Steep Creek Hazard & Risk Policy pdf click here (2.83 MB) .

Resources

To view all Mountain Creek Hazard Mitigation resources click here.