Photo: Peter Weeber

City crews dismantling tiger dams

Large water-filled tiger dams that have protected Penticton’s waterfront over the past several weeks are coming down today, as the city shifts into recovery and repair mode.

Okanagan Lake has fallen steadily over the past week, beginning to to reveal significant damage to the foreshore.

A section of the Penticton walkway near the Peach has been undermined to the point that the earth on the other side of the sidewalk began to subside last night. Repairs on the Kiwanis Walking Pier, which has detached from its piles in some areas, likely won’t happen until the end of July when water levels are more manageable.

Mayor Andrew Jakubeit says the city is insured for both items, and are starting to assess the situation in preparation of making a claim. City Manager Peter Weeber suggested the pier alone, took hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of damage. Large quantities of beach sand have also been pulled back into the lake. 

Jakubeit says the city is grateful for the help it has received from the provincial government through the whole ordeal and will continue to receive with the disposal of hundreds of thousands of sandbags. Two weeks ago, the Mayor estimated the province had already spent $500,000 fighting the high water in Penticton.

“But even with that, there are projects that our crews would have been normally doing but they were seconded to help with shoring up our foreshore,” the Jakubeit said.

But the Mayor emphasized that Penticton would bounce back with plenty of summer to go.

“Some of the repairs, we will be able to do in short order, I think that the impact won’t be as noticeable as some people think it might.”

“Skaha Lake is pristine, that was really never affected,” he added, reiterating that Penticton is still very much so “open for business.”

Photo: Colin Dacre

Undermined Penticton walkway