CALGARY — The province will spend a further $13.5 million this year on smaller flood mitigation projects for the city.

The measures include an earthen and concrete barrier to protect part of downtown, stormwater sewer improvements to stop backflow into threatened neighbourhoods, and a new bridge with a deck well above the roiling waters of a one-in-a-100-year event.

But Environment Minister Shannon Phillips says it will be another year and a $1.9-million study before the ruling New Democrats know whether there is a large-scale solution to Calgary’s biggest flood risk — a surging Bow River that could cause damage far greater than what the city saw in the disaster that struck five years ago.

“We have responded,” Phillips told reporters at Tuesday press conference in the city.

“Our government has come together to make sure those assessments are there to keep the people of Calgary safe and keep the people of Alberta safe.”

Revised estimates from the city last year pegged direct and indirect damages from a flood on the Bow River similar in scale to the one seen on the Elbow River in 2013 at $2.4 billion, some $900 million more than the flood on its smaller tributary.

Among the upstream storage options on the Bow River that will be looked at by consultants are new dams and reservoirs near Morley or Eyremore or an expanded Ghost River dam and reservoir.

The Calgary projects that will be built this year include a $4.15-million permanent barrier on the south bank of the Bow River from the new West Eau Claire Park to Reconciliation Bridge, a $4.15-million stormwater system for the neighbourhoods on the plateau above Hillhurst and Sunnyside to reduce flooding and backflow in those communities during high water events, and a $5.2-million replacement deck for the 9th Avenue bridge in Inglewood.

Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi said he is occasionally impatient and would have liked to have seen more done in the five years since the 2013 floods, including further progress on the $432-millon Springbank dry dam and reservoir on the Elbow River.

When the project was announced in 2014, there were initial projections it would be complete by now. Four years on, the province is mired in a federal environmental review and faces resistance from ranchers who are refusing to sell much of the 6,800 acres required for the mitigation megaproject.

“We’ve had real commitment from successive provincial governments of different political stripes to getting that piece done and I’m confident that will get done,” Nenshi told reporters.

“The next real big step is around the Bow River.”

As a temporary measure, the province is paying TransAlta $5.5 million annually for five years to modify its hydroelectric operations and lower water levels on its Ghost, Barrier and Kananaskis lake reservoirs during the spring and summer period when there is the greatest risk of flooding.

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Matt McClure is a senior investigative reporter based in Calgary. Follow him on Twitter: @mattmcclure2

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