Photo: Colliery Dam Park. Photo from NanaimoInformation.com
In October 2012 the city of Nanaimo announced that it was planning to remove two 100-year-old dams in Colliery Dam Park. While we oppose major dams, these century old dams have been transformed over time to become a part of the commons enjoyed by the local community. And through determined community opposition – including from members of the Council of Canadians Mid Island chapter – it appears that the popular dams, a swimming area, and the park have been saved!
The City of Nanaimo website tells us about the history of the dams. “The Colliery Dams are a rare link with Nanaimoâs industrial heritage. Built in 1910-11 by the Western Fuel Company to supply water for coal washing and for use by miners, mules and horses in the mines, the water system quickly developed an important secondary use. Homes near the pipeline were allowed to tap the line for domestic uses and eventually this water was carried to most of the homes in South Harewood.”
While their century-old industrial use is long past, the dams created in more recent years a popular swimming place for the community. Local activist June Ross tells us, “The dams are wonderful, there are two lakes where people swim and fish (for free!) and it is a beautiful park with many second growth trees and trails to walk.” Chapter activist Paul Manly adds, “[The dams] are actively used by low income families – this is the summer vacation location, and a very beautiful one, used by children who donât get the opportunity to go out of town during summer holidays, whose parents canât drive them to the other beaches, lakes or rivers to swim. They are a community treasure in so many ways.”
To save this recreational treasure for the community, the Colliery Dam Park Preservation Society and a Direct Action Group were formed. Ross says, “The Colliery Dam Park Preservation Society had within their ranks engineers who could not fathom why the city thought the dams should to be removed and the Direct Action Group had people who were fully prepared to lay themselves in front of machines to stop any kind of destruction.” The Council of Canadians office in Vancouver assisted with direct action training last June as noted in this blog.
Originally, City Council had voted 5-4 to remove the dams. Undaunted, Ross says, “We all started going to Council meetings and there was on the one night 55 delegations to present to Council. The decision to remove them was ironically done at an in camera meeting which infuriated the community even more.” Then last July, the Snunemeyex First Nation said no to the dams being removed in part because that would destroy the fish habitat in the Chase River which runs off of the dams. With this, Ross says, “The brakes were put on big time, the motion to hire the contractor to take the dams out was reconsidered and we won the vote!”
And just late last month, the Nanaimo Bulletin reported, “The technical committee investigating remediation options for the Colliery dams says the amount of work to bring the structures up to an acceptable risk level is much less than previously thought. [An assessment] concluded that the concrete walls of the dams are in good condition, with limited signs of deterioration, with extremely low probability of an extreme rupture in an earthquake that would put public safety at risk.”
While there is now some controversy over an expensive recommendation to address the spillway capacity of the dams (seen mostly as the city needing to justify in some way its original directive to remove the dams), it’s clear that the swimming place – a recreational commons – has been saved for now and there is hope the park will be there indefinitely for the community.
For more information, please see the Save the Colliery Dams Facebook page.
Congratulations to everyone who was involved in this struggle!
