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FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — The City of Fort St. John was approved for funding for the Bouffioux Coulee Remediation project in 2023.
Through the Community Emergency Preparedness Fund (CEPF), the city was granted $2,145,000 for a lift station.
The Bouffioux Coulee has been facing erosion issues for years which may cause infrastructure problems in the area.
In July 2022, the city applied for funding to remediate the issue.
The Fort St. John sewage lagoons and other sewage infrastructure, part of the Alaska Highway, a pipeline, and the homes in the Old Fort Subdivision lie within the coulee and are at risk should the coulee erode further.
The coulee also serves as stormwater drainage for the city and surrounding areas.
Several solutions to the remediation were workshopped in collaboration with members of local governments, including the District of Taylor and the Peace River Regional District.
The strategy formed in April 2021 to address the erosion, landslides, and geohazard risks in the coulee includes strategies to mitigate the amount of stormwater that the Bouffioux Coulee handles by diverting some to other channels and upgrading the land around the sewage infrastructure to reduce soil pressure.
The plan also includes the construction of a maintenance road and a study of the effect of a debris flood (or, commonly, flash flood) on the Old Fort.
A total of $23.4 million from the CEPF was distributed across the province to better prepare for, mitigate and respond to climate-related emergencies, according to the Ministry of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness.
The next intake for the Disaster Risk Reduction – Climate Adaptation stream closes on February 24th, 2023.
According to the ministry, First Nations and local governments have been approved for more than $100 million through CEPF for over 1,100 projects to help communities mitigate and prepare for disasters and climate-related emergencies.
With files from Grace Giesbrecht.
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