Flood threat forces move for Waldsea Lake cabins

For cabin owners at Waldsea Lake, it’s time to move it or lose it. Literally.

With record rains in 2010 and a heavy snowfall this winter, water levels are expected to rise further on Waldsea Lake, which first experienced major flooding in 2007.

The government has decided it’s done repairing the temporary berms erected to protect the cabins and cabin owners will be asked to move their buildings to a new location. Waldsea Lake Regional Park will be closed and the berms will eventually erode.

"It’s not really tenable to continue to protect the cabins," said Dale Hjertaas, director of communications and policy for the Saskatchewan Watershed Authority (SWA). He said Monday the SWA will ask cabin owners to move and provide moving services for those who choose to relocate their dwellings.

The decision comes after several years of attempts and more than $1 million spent keeping water away from the buildings on the shore of Waldsea Lake, which is a basin lake with no natural outflow.

Nearby Deadmoose Lake has risen to the point where it will flood into Waldsea Lake. The SWA has concluded maintaining the berm in the long term is not viable and Hjertaas said cabins are threatened by water from two sides.

"Either one is probably more than we can continue to handle," said Hjertaas.

Naomi Ramsay accepts that the heartbreaking fight to keep their family cabin at Waldsea Lake is over, but it’s the precious family memories and time spent together she’ll miss most.

"It’s all about family. My children lived at the lake in the summer," said Ramsay, who is also the chair of the Waldsea Lake Regional Park Authority.

Sixty Waldsea homes and cabins were damaged in the initial flooding, and while some chose to cut their losses, others rebuilt with the hope the floods would end.

Ramsay believes they were misled by the government, and said cabin owners were encouraged to rebuild. Many cabin owners have spent several thousands of dollars rebuilding after the 2007 flood.

"Compensation is definitely not going to cover what people have put in."

Her own family has invested more than $50,000 in the past four years rebuilding, including 50 per cent of the fill between the berm and the cabin and 50 per cent of a new foundation.

Cabin owners on the lake purchase 99-year leases from the regional park. Leases on the newest lots developed by the park were sold for upward of $30,000 and the government will not compensate for these costs.

"We think government should help but doesn’t have the whole responsibility," said Hjertaas. "If I was a prospective buyer, how much would you pay for a lease that’s about to go under water?"

Cabin owners are encouraged to move before spring thaw. The land cabins sit on will become muddy, and it’s likely the only access road will flood and become unusable. Once spring runoff begins, there is a chance berms will fail before cabins can be moved.

Cabin owners would have to secure new property and pay for a new foundation and septic tank for their building. For many, that’s just too much.

"People have lost a lot of money and we’re very saddened by that," said Ramsay. "For us, a new lot somewhere else is just not going to be an alternative."

Christine Skulski’s family chose to build a second cabin after they lost the first in 2007. While she’s upset with the decision, she realizes no one can take the blame for nature.

"We understand that it’s the best scenario, but we’re getting really the short stick because they will not compensate us for hardly anything," said Skulski, who sits on the board of the regional park.

A meeting was scheduled to explain the decision to cabin owners Monday in Humboldt.