Community fears for major flooding on Lake Erie in southwestern Ontario, as feds assess protection funding
CBC
An environmental group in Leamington, Ont. is sounding the alarm over Hillman Marsh and calling on the government to protect the Point Pelee peninsula against the threat of a rising Lake Erie.
Wayne King, founder of the Leamington Shoreline Association, says action is needed to prevent the possibility of destructive flooding in the southwestern Ontario community.
"There's 500 homes and businesses out there that would be underwater," he said.
Back in November, the municipality of Leamington submitted an application to Ottawa under the Disaster Mitigation and Adaptation Fund (DMAF) to help pay for an $18-million project to protect the area.
The money would go toward adding protection at the edge of the marsh, where a barrier beach had been sheltering the area from waves of Lake Erie until it was nearly destroyed in 2018, eventually leaving a large area open to the lake.
It would also be used to create some artificial islands, and strengthen the last line of defence between the marsh and the land: a clay berm.
"If this breaches, you've got 10, 12 feet of water in that farm land and inside those homes," King said as he stood on the berm on Tuesday.
While lake levels are slightly lower this year, they're cyclical, King said, and they are expected to rise as the climate changes.
Some work in the region was completed by Ducks Unlimited last year, funded through a $30-million provincial program.
Hilda MacDonald, the mayor of Leamington, said the $18-million price tag for the work the municipality wants to do is too steep for it to absorb.
"And yet on the reverse side, no one can afford not to do it because of not taking care of the danger in not taking care of the dike walls and the water crashing in on basically an earthen barrier," she said.
She said she hopes the upper levels of government understand the "frightening possibilities" if nothing is done.
A spokesperson for the province said it was aware of the situation in the area and the "safety of the public and the protection of our communities is our number one priority."
The DMAF is a federal program but costs are shared by the provincial and federal governments, the statement explained.
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