Internal review of the province’s response to floods is complete.
Vernon engineer assesses decisions in lead-up to 2017 floods.
Report’s release delayed until April ?
A retired Vernon engineer has completed a technical assessment of the decisions made by the provincial government during last year’s disastrous floods throughout the Okanagan Valley.
Brian Guy says the yet-to-be-released report contains “a long list of recommendations” based on the monitoring data that was collected and assessed. It took three months to complete last fall.
Hired by the province to perform an independent review, Guy told the Okanagan Basin Water Board (OBWB)  his study has been submitted to the provincial government, and discussion about how the report will be rolled out is currently taking place.
Guy sits on the Okanagan Basin Water Board and serves as chair of the regional water stewardship advisory committee.
While he wouldn’t reveal specifics of the report, Guy acknowledged there is great interest in his findings from municipalities across the Okanagan Valley because of the impact the flooding last year.
“Kelowna spent $2.5 million on flood-related response work, so the question of whether the province did its job or not is a question many municipalities are interested in,” said Guy. “It was an internal study of how ministry staff responded and they wanted an outside independent person do it.”.
“It was a lot of fun for me to do. I live here – I am passionate about Okanagan water issues.”
His career spanned 35 years as a water resource specialist, project manager and business leader. In 1994, he founded Summit Environmental Consultants Ltd. in Vernon, growing the company to become a leading environmental consulting firm in the Okanagan.
With his retirement last year, Guy was presented with the C.J. Westerman Memorial Award, the highest award, presented by the Engineers and Geoscientists of British Columbia, for contributions to the geoscience profession.
Guy told the board his report is based on monitoring data that was collected and assessed.
 
Source: Black Press Digital