Flooding due to beavers

LEWISPORTE -

On Nov. 16 Station Road looked like it had a river running through it at one point as the water from a pond on Premier Drive (across from Lewisporte Collegiate) flowed down the street to eventually end up running off in the harbour.

Main Street had to be closed to traffic at one point as the intersection of Station Road and Main Street was experiencing a strong water runoff.

The man-made pond was created years ago to supply water for coastal boats and trains. Lewisporte Town manager Perry Pond said while there is no actual river running into the pond, it does have a control structure on it that had been used years ago so water could be accessed when needed for the boats and trains. The problem was created when four beavers living in the water source dammed the control structure. This resulted in the water level rising to a higher than normal level.

"We (Town) had to get the water off the pond because there was a fear that there could be flooding that might impact the houses in the area of the dam," said Mr. Pond. The Town had notified the Wildlife department of the beavers and the situation created.

A trapper was engaged to remove the beavers, but in the meantime the Town had to get to work gradually letting off some of the water from the pond.

"As the water was being let off bit by bit the dam was getting weaker and weaker until it eventually gave way," said Mr. Pond.

The result was the high volume of water travelling downhill towards Station Rd.

"There were no significant damages," the Town manager reported. "We flooded out Station Rd but no homes in the area were impacted when the water did breakaway.

"There was some damage to the access road (on Premier Drive) to Imperial Oil but that was repaired right away."

There were vehicles in the parking area for those working on the boats that were at sea at the time of the flooding. Mr. Pond said the water ran under those vehicles, but they would have to wait until the vehicle owners returned to determine whether there were any damages.

Mr. Pond said it was still necessary to remove the beavers even with the water run-off because they were back to rebuilding the dam on the control structure on the afternoon of Nov. 16.