Mud Lake residents meet with consultants investigating cause of flood

A group of concerned Mud Lake residents got to meet with the two men who will be investigating why their community flooded earlier this year.

Residents of the small Labrador community near Happy Valley-Goose Bay were evacuated in a scramble on May 17 when the banks of the Churchill River flooded.

We're going to put those puzzle pieces together to get the whole picture.- Karl-ErichLindenschmidt

The Newfoundland and Labrador government hired Karl-Erich Lindenschmidt, an associate professor at University of Saskatchewan's school of Environment and Sustainability and Global Institute for Water Security, to investigate the flooding.

And on Wednesday night, Lindenschmidt met with 16 Mud Lake residents to assuage their concerns about the level of independence his review would have.

"The government of Newfoundland and Labrador are facilitating this meeting and our review, but they have no influence on our assessment," Lindenschmidt told the gathered residents.

'We're collecting the puzzle pieces'

People in Mud Lake claim the Muskrat Falls hydroelectric project and its developer, Crown corporation Nalcor Energy, are to blame for the flooding. Residents whose homes were damaged have also signed a proposed class-action lawsuit.

Also at the meeting with Lindenschmidt was Dave Brown, a representative of KGS Group, a Winnipeg-based company that specializes in hydroelectric and water resources.

Lindenschmidt said their work right now is centred around gathering data.

"We're collecting the puzzle pieces. Before you start a puzzle, you make sure all the pieces are right side up, that's what we're doing right now," Lindenschmidt said.

• Winnipeg consultants hired to find cause of Mud Lake flooding
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"Then we're going to go back and we're going to put those puzzle pieces together to get the whole picture."

Melissa Best, chair of the Mud Lake improvement committee, said there is still some skepticism from residents, but the researchers seemed sincere.

"I really appreciated getting to know them," she said. "It was only an hour meeting, but I think that they heard what we had to say and I think that they're legitimate."

The report into the flooding of Mud Lake is expected to be finished by early September.