Management of Withall Dam prompts Tiny to look into dam rights

Engineering work on the Withall dam on Concession 4 south of Wyevale will likely be a multi-million dollar project in the next few years.

That was the reason behind Tiny Township committee of the whole's decision to approve a $75,000 proposal for consultation work.

Infrastructure on bridges can be a fairly straightforward process, but as public works director Tim Leitch explained at the meeting, the Withall dam bridge isn’t like most others.

“It does have some unique challenges,” said Leitch citing issues of safety and integrity, and numerous government ministries involved. “This isn’t a typical bridge that we have.”

Built in 1912, the Withall dam used to run a grist mill for locals until the mill burnt down in 1990. While the bridge and dam is owned by the township, the mill was owned by a private owner who also operated the dam until 1973.

“It’s a little confusing on who manages that dam,” explained Leitch. “It’s our bridge but there’s damming rights that are involved with this, and the environmental impact when we do any work on that is we do not want to impact the fish population, of course, downstream of this bridge. It will be a high-level assessment, and provide us some direction both on the bridge structure and our damming ability with the Withall dam.”

Coun. Steffen Walma pointed out that various concerns listed in the report raised the question as to the possibility of upgrades for the repairs of the bridge, estimated in 2015 as just under $1.6 million for the scope of the project.

Leitch replied, “There’s a bypass flume that goes down through the side of this thing that’s in total disrepair. We’re looking at it from a structural standpoint, we’re looking at: how do we manage the dam, what type of environmental impacts there are; as noted there is a lot of stagnant water, there is a lot of sediment garbage.

To the dam rights, Coun. Dave Brunelle, Kelly Helowka, and Mayor David Evans all expressed interest in clarifying the confusion before the municipality 

“The estimate is approximately $1.6 million, and that was in 2015,” said Evans, “so who knows what it is now. To put that amount of money in and still be in a legal quagmire is something we want to get resolved first off.”

Leitch agreed, and reinforced the need for the consultation proposal from RJ Burnside & Associates Ltd.

“It is a lot of money, but there’s a lot of work involved,” Leitch said, “especially when you have all the different ministries involved; I think we listed off in there about four or five different ministries that all have their fingers in the pie. That takes a lot of stickhandling to get all that straightened away.”

The Burnside proposal for approximately $75,000 for consultation work related to Withall dam was accepted by the committee of the whole shortly after.

In 2021, Tiny Township explored funding for the Withall dam and its repair work, estimated at $2.4 million over a five-year span.

The engineering proposal, including photos of Withall dam and the 2015 technical memorandum identifying repair needs for the project, can be viewed within the agenda page located on the Tiny Township website.

Archives of council meetings are available to view on Tiny Township’s YouTube channel.