Fiona Isaacson
May 25, 2009
SOURCE: The Peterborough Examiner
Blame it on the beavers. Another washout of a Peterborough County road is being blamed on a faulty beaver dam.
A flash flood significantly damaged County Road 507, south of Salmon Lake Road, on May 1, county council heard yesterday.
Operations manager Bill Linnen said there's evidence the flood was caused by a breach in a nearby beaver dam, in Galway-Cavendish and Harvey Township.
Another flash flood, about a month before, damaged a North Kawartha road and the suspected cause is also a beaver dam.
About 90 metres of County Road 620, at Glen Alda Road, was damaged April 3.
"In Afghanistan they have the Taliban. In the County of Peterborough, we have the beaver," Warden Ron Gerow said with a laugh.
County Road 620 re-opened April 7 and County Road 507 reopened two lanes of traffic May 12.
Final repair costs for County Road 507 weren't ready yesterday, but Linnen estimated it will cost $200,000 to $225,000. County Road 620 repairs were about $100,000.
Several councillors said the county should be more proactive in identifying beaver dams, and hold private landowners with beaver dams accountable.
Gerow said he's concerned about a "huge beaver dam" in his township, Havelock-Belmont-Methuen.
If the dam failed, "those in Havelock will be no more. And I'm not saying that facetiously," he said.Because beaver dams are "so far off the waterway, we have no way to be aware of their locations," Linnen said.
CAO Gary King said he believes the Ministry of Natural Resources won't compensate municipalities if a dam breaks on Crown land.
However, private landowners could be held liable, "providing you put them on notice," King said.
Councillors also wondered if the province could be held responsible if, as Linnen said, there are some structural problems with the road.
The province owned the road 10 years ago.
"When the road was gifted to us by the province, it didn't come with a guarantee," said public works director Chris Bradley.
He said public works is trying to identify and repair culverts at risk. About 100 have been identified so far, Bradley told The Examiner.
