A crew member looks out at the Oyama Canal while clearing some brush to make way for dredging machines on Sept. 10, 2024.

(JESSE TOMAS / iNFOnews.ca)

After years of fighting through bureaucratic red tape, community organizing and raising nearly $100,000 dollars, the Oyama Canal will soon be safe for boats to pass through.

For years the Oyama Canal between Kalamalka Lake to Wood Lake has been too shallow for boats to safely pass, but work has begun to dredge the canal so it’s deep enough.

Andrew Spears has been leading the charge to dredge the canal. Now the permits are in order and the site prep began, Sept. 10.

“A machine will walk down, clean it up, dewater it and then pick it up and put it into trucks. The vacuum trucks will do the critical areas underneath the bridge,” Spears said.  

A small crew of men were slicing up vegetation with chainsaws and hauling it up the bank by hand to clear a path for the heavy machinery. The bed of the canal sat just a few inches underwater in its shallowest sections waiting for the day when the silt will be removed.

“We're hoping it only takes a day or two,” he said. “We're hoping it'll be done in the next eight days.”

There's a time pressure because of the deadline to return the equipment that has been donated by the community.

“There's a lot of people that have given us very generous donations and that window is going to run out for their donations to be able to use their equipment because of their other commitments,” he said.

READ MORE: Lake Country society raising money to dredge the Oyama canal sooner rather than later

A major concern is the environmental impact so Spears brought in Arsenault Environmental Consulting.

“They're here on site doing some tree replanting. They're looking for mussels. Tomorrow morning they'll be taking any fish that are trapped between these silt curtains out and then we're looking forward to getting in here, getting this job done,” Spears said.

The $87,000 for the project was raised by the community through the Oyama Canal Management Society’s online fundraiser.

Once the canal has actually been dredged the work will continue.

Paddle boarding down the canal while a group of people try to get a boat unstuck in the background.

Image Credit: Marshall Jones

“We've got a long way to go yet. There's a long-term monitoring program,” he said. “We always have to keep some finances... for that, and it's going to be a continuous eye on the project type thing.”

Spears said he’s excited for the canal to be something people can really enjoy again.

“It’s been monumental, we’re very very happy. It’s something I wanted to do for my community and for my kids," he said. "It’s something I appreciated growing up so it’s awesome that we get to restore it to the usage it should be, which is a navigable waterway that everybody should have the right to safe passage through."

Click here to check out the society’s social media page.

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