Troy Shantz
A Sarnia resident is at odds with the city over the cause of a failed seawall at his lakefront property, a potential hint of things to come if Lake Huron continues to rise.
Sections of John McNeill’s seawall collapsed last fall, a problem he says is linked to shoreline repairs the city did at adjacent Blackwell Beach.
The municipal beach was lost in 2016 when rising water levels and high waves uprooted trees, knocked out a stairway to the beach and buckled the public seawall.
Sarnia has undertaken two rounds of emergency repairs using armour stone to halt further erosion into the clay cliff there.
McNeill and his neighbour own the lots immediately west of Blackwell Beach.
McNeill said after the city began repairing the public shoreline water got behind his neighbour’s seawall and gouged a hole in his backyard.
Within weeks, the erosion spread to his own yard, McNeill said.
He couldn’t get a contractor in last summer to halt the damage, he said, because the approvals needed from the St. Clair Regional Conservation Authority were delayed.
Meanwhile, the water-filled hole continued to spread, eventually removing a strip of property about 35 feet deep.
Last fall, two storms finished the job, taking out the seawall and his stairway to the beach, McNeill said.
“We’ve got a gazebo out there … when we’d get up in the morning I’d say to my wife, ‘Is the gazebo still out there?’” he said.
“It’s unfortunate we didn’t get something done because we could have saved that 12-foot wall. In about two days, thousands of tonnes of sand went out there really fast.”
Eventually the work was approved and a continuous, 20-foot-high corrugated wall now protects both neighbours.
McNeill said because of the delays, his original repair bill estimated at $53,000 has swelled to $137,000 and counting.
City Hall said the landowners’ problems have nothing to do with the work done at Blackwell Beach. The private seawall was already failing, said Robert Williams, who oversees much of Sarnia’s shoreline maintenance.
“The conditions there were due to a combination of high water, a lack of a functioning beach, and an insufficiently installed seawall that was fading,” he said.
A third-party engineer the city hired to investigate the neighbouring properties has confirmed that, Williams said.
The real problem, he added, is the rising water levels.
Lake Huron is 21 inches above its long-term average and has risen another two inches since this time last year, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
What’s more, Huron is expected to rise another two inches this spring.
The city has a draft proposal for permanent repairs to Blackwell Beach, and a report is expected for council later this spring.