The problems persist for Holland Marsh farmers.
On a day where they were hoping to start recovering from disastrous flooding they were met with only delays. More than 100 acres of carrots and onions remain a lake. Barns and storage buildings are still surrounded by water.
And today, June 24, 2013, was also the day work was supposed to start on repairing the failed dikes. However, excavators remain idle.
“One of the reasons we haven’t done anything yet (is) I have some very serious concerns that if we repair the second breach, we’re going to continue failures along the dike,” says Bradford West Gwillimbury drainage superintendent Frank Jonkman. “We will begin shortly, but we won’t de-water the entire system until we get an engineer assessment done.”
That’s a whole new level of frustration for farmer Roger Marques.
“To come to work and see it underwater and not be able to do anything about it is frustrating,” Marques says. “The season is over and I need to get it repaired and fixed for next year.
“They have to plug the dike first before we can pump out the water, and it will be a lot of work.”
Jonkman says the work will begin soon – it’s just a matter of getting contractors on-site after the assessment is completed. The assessment is expected this week. However, when the patch work is done, it will only be a temporary fix. The town is still waiting for approval from the province to rebuild the dike completely with the hope of preventing another huge flood.
It could be several weeks, however, before the province gives final approval. In the meantime, farmers are hoping to get access to their fields as soon as possible. The town is hoping to have contractors on-site this week to being the patch work and pump the water out.
It’s a job that could take at least two weeks to complete.
