PUBLIC safety managers at the District of North Vancouver are hoping an early warning system that tells residents when the risks of a liquid landslide are high will be back up and operating soon.
Two years ago, the district spent $100,000 to develop a complicated prediction model for "debris flow" creekbased slides. The program took detailed weather predictions for North Vancouver and fed it into a software program that also factored in recent rainfall, current rate of rainfall and historical data about when trouble has happened in the past.
The district then posted an alert on its website if heightened risk of a debris flow slide was predicted.
But recently, BGC - the engineering company that built the warning system - refused to continue operating it, after getting into a legal disagreement with the municipality.
New risk managers at BGC said they wouldn't operate the system - which costs the district about $25,000 a year - unless the municipality provided the company third-party liability insurance.
"We were unable to reach an agreement on that," said Michelle Weston, public safety manager for the district.
The upshot is the District of North Vancouver must now pay another group - Kerr Wood Leidal engineers and Floworks consultants - to recreate the warning system at a cost of another $30,000.
"It's disappointing," said Weston, who added the original amount paid to BGC involved developing the system and putting in place but "it didn't involve long-term operations."
Weston said she's hoping the contract with the new site developers will involve maintaining it for between three and five years.
The contract - which hasn't gone to council yet - would involve maintaining the site from October to April each year for a cost of about $30,000.
The system doesn't send out warnings but allows residents to check and see if there's a warning for their area - either through the Internet or the phone.
