When the landslide swept down Lion’s Bay’s Battani Creek last month, the home of Dave and Barb Enns was directly in its path, and in the days after investigators confirmed their deaths.
It happened after a so-called bomb cyclone had swept the region.
“The landslide happened at the very instant that they had maximum gusts on Howe Sound,” explained SFU earth sciences professor emeritus John Clague.
While the cause of the landslide isn’t known, Global News has learned some new things about what was going on upslope from where the Enns lived.
If you follow Battani Creek upstream you’ll find a small concrete dam and reservoir that’s been built across the creek The landslide appears to have started just below that dam.
That area was part of a proposed development Called Lions Point Elite Homes, owned by IT entrepreneur Steve Vestergaard.
A brochure about the project has pictures of a reservoir it says he built there, and other documents show a history of compliance issues he had with Victoria about some of the work he did in the area.
Whether it’s a creek or a tiny brook, even on your property, if you alter a natural watercourse in B.C. you need a permit.
While the province confirms that Vestergaard did have a permit to take water from Battani Creek, it wasn’t immediately clear if officials had signed off on that dam, or who built it.
As Lions Bay residents gathered for grief counselling on Monday, questions about what was going on up Battani Creek were top of mind for many.
With the RCMP now looking into the tragedy, many are wondering where that’s going. But no wrongdoing has been alleged… and authorities have not yet indicated what their investigation has revealed.
Former Mountie Russ Grab said that is routine.
“It ranges everywhere from investigating this as a sudden death, its an act of God … all the way up to the possibility that there’s been some act on the part of another human that amounts to criminal negligence,” he said.