What We Heard: Public Engagement for Long Pond Flow Control and Flood Mitigation

What We Heard during public engagement for the Long Pond flow control and flood mitigation project is available at EngageStJohns.ca and will be presented to Committee of the Whole today.

Public engagement for the project was announced on November 23 and virtual information session took place on Tuesday, Dec. 7. In total, the engagement page received 192 unique visitors with over 40 people attending the public information session online.

Project Overview
The Rennies River watershed has been subjected to major flood events caused by rain and subsequent river flooding. To help reduce downstream flooding impacts to properties, the City is proposing construction of a flow control structure across the outlet of Long Pond.

The purpose of the engagement was to inform the public of this proposed project, address any questions or concerns and compile feedback gathered to include in the City's submission to the Government of NL.

Highlights of Feedback:

• Residents asked that Allandale Road bridge allow for pedestrians and active transportation.
• Concerns regarding water levels in Long Pond following a major flooding event, after the structure is in place, and questions about how the increase would impact the natural environment.
• Concerns around effectiveness of proposed solution at preventing catastrophic damage.
• General sense that the proposal is a tradeoff between additional flooding at Long Pond, to benefit a small number of homeowners, or to allow flooding downstream.
• Concerns over unanticipated impacts in the future. 

Next Steps
Project documents, and feedback gathered during public engagement will be submitted to the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador to start the Environmental Assessment Process. Work on the detailed design, tendering and construction will not start until after the undertaking is released from provincial review.