Quinte West’s $50,000 flood plan a necessity, says mayor

By Allen Steinberg

QUINTE WEST – Quinte West has plans to prepare for flooding by using an unlikely method: more water.

At Quinte West’s city council meeting last night, a $50,000 plan was approved to go towards a TriWater Bag system, a flood protection mechanism that uses bags of water instead of sandbags to pile up against flood areas.

The TriWater Bag system is an easily deployable, environmentally friendly alternative to sandbags to defend against flooding.

Mayor Jim Harrison told the council that these bags are necessary.

“This is reusable equipment. I don’t believe that flood threats are going to be a one-off and that over the next number of years, we could be faced with flooding issues on a regular basis,” he says.

The announcement comes less than a week after Quinte Conservation issued a Water Safety Statement about rising water levels in the Quinte region. The city faced a spring and summer of flooding along its waterways and Lake Ontario.