RE: URGENT: Public Safety Hazards & Infrastructure Failure – Marler Park Stormwater Facilities

Good Afternoon Jason,

I believe your letter(s) will be on the upcoming Council agenda and best to confirm with info@viewroyal.ca, if they have not already notified you.

In the meantime I have reviewed your letter dated February 2nd regarding the ongoing safety concerns, and I have also engaged with staff whom have met you at the site. I appreciate that you corresponded back to staff under separate cover, and that you were glad to hear from staff that the fence repairs are planned, and a review of the stormwater pond by qualified professionals was being expedited.

As such, I can offer the following response to your February 2nd letter:

Comments regarding persistent safety risks and degree of work required: The caution tape and cleanup is merely the start of the investigative works to address safety risks in the short term until the fence repairs are complete. I wish we could order and have the fence on site and installed same day: the reality is that fence orders do take some time. This was similar responded to you on February 2nd under separate cover, and we are expediting this order the best we can.
Comments regarding unmitigated runoff, erosion, contamination, failure of filtration systems, nuisance and liability: Paraphrasing our previous February 2nd response, qualified professionals, both engineers and biologists, are already undertaking a performance review of the pond. The findings and recommendations will help inform our maintenance efforts based on best practices and standards. This may include actual testing at the site, to ensure we are dealing 100% with facts as to whether there are contamination issues beyond thresholds, and what contaminants there may be. As you may appreciate, different contaminants may require different solutions, or perhaps the pond is still providing adequate service in stormwater attenuation and treatment of contaminants. We look forward to this expedited review as much as you do, and we’ll continue to engage with you once additional information is present.
- Additionally, of which you may not have been aware of previously, the Town is currently undergoing an update to its Drainage Master Plan, of which additional analysis of the Town’s natural assets such as stormwater ponds will be included. We look forward to this report and its findings as we have confirmed with the consultants assigned to the project that this pond is included in the inventory.
Comments regarding jurisdictional obligations, oversight, CRD involvement and evidence of systematic maintenance: The CRD will continue to be an important stakeholder in our expedited discussions regarding the ponds. The CRD may respond separately regarding Craigflower Creek itself. In the meantime, the performance review indicated above will provide keen insight on recommended measures to adequately maintain the Town’s sole asset so that it can continue to operate per its intended use.
Comments regarding formal request for accountability: I believe all of the four bullet points has been responded to you under previous cover and in summary:
- Independent Assessment: Is currently in progress – see item 2 above
- Property and Habitat Protection: Is currently in progress – see item 2 above. Regarding property effects, your property is actually bounded by Craigflower Creek itself, of which the Town’s Pond is adjacent on the far side of the property. As you mentioned previously, there may be times during heavy event storms that the creek may overflow into the Towns pond. That in part may be due to the flow characteristics of the upstream creeks within the CRD and Thetis lake.
- Restoration timeline: Will follow the performance review (currently in progress) – see item 2 above
- Emergency fence repair: see item 1 above of which you were informed under separate cover

We appreciate your request for haste on the matter. The initial January 20th letter that you provided gave us great information. Don’t hesitate to keep in touch with the staff working on this file for updates, and I anticipate that staff may reach out to you from time to time as well. With the impending performance review taking place as we speak, we look forward to speaking with you regarding its results.

Ivan Leung, P.Eng Director of Engineering Town of View Royal | 45 View Royal Ave | Victoria, BC V9B 1A6 d: 250-708-2272 | p: 250-479-6800