Christine May had been keeping her eyes on a big crack near the edge of the riverbank on Pine Tree Drive all winter long.
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She’ll now have to find a new focal point for the progress of the bank’s erosion into the Humber River.
That’s because the crack she had been watching for months has finally collapsed towards the river, joining several more feet of sandy riverbank that has been eaten away by the current in the last 15 months.
The erosion, which really has been happening naturally as long as the river has been there, accelerated in January 2018 after a heavy rainstorm and mild spell sent raging floodwaters and broken pack ice downstream from further up the mighty Upper Humber River.
The heavy current and ice was directed right at the bend in the river on Pine Tree Drive, tearing away at the sandy earth there.
The initial faltering of the riverbank along Pine Tree Drive in 2018 forced the Town of Deer Lake to restrict vehicular access to the road to local traffic only and issue an evacuation advisory to the homes on the river side of the road.
Not one household, including May’s parents who live closest to the most perilous section, have ever left their homes.
That doesn’t mean the threat is gone. In fact, everyone knows it’s just been getting worse since the major storm of more than a year ago.
Under Pine Tree Drive, there is municipal water and sewer infrastructure that is also in jeopardy.
The town is well aware of the problem, but few measures have been taken to physically mitigate the eroding banks. The town has yet to award a contract to execute the chosen strategy of placing large stones along the river bank to help slow the natural erosion process.
Mayor Dean Ball said the latest crumbling of the bank is not unexpected as it is a natural occurrence that happens this time of year as temperatures rise. The plan now, he added, is to wait until the spring melt has run its course to see what the extent of the problem is at that point.
He figures the town won’t go to tender with the contract until late May.
“Obviously, there’s got to be something done,” he said. “The distance of (how far along the river requires rock) is still not figured out and it’s a work in progress.”
Ball noted that, once the work is started, the hope is to keep at it until the most concerning stretch of impacted riverbank is addressed.
“We’re almost going to be forced into it once the job starts,” said the mayor. “It’s going to be one of those things that, until you’re in there, you won’t know. Like a renovation, once you start it, you don’t know where you’re going to end up.”
