The Windsor Star from Windsor, Ontario, Canada • A6

ENVIRONMENTAL Catholic Central students Uonaka Mandila, left, Loay Aly, George Altarshah and Stevan Hanna participate in World Wildlife Sweater Day on Thursday. In a bid to reduce its carbon footprint, school thermostat temperatures were set lower, while students and staff were asked to wear sweaters to stay warm. NICK BRANCACCIO TREVOR TERFLOTH CHATHAM Not a year after it was menaced by early spring flooding, low-lying Chatham is again in the crosshairs of dangerously high water levels. But this time the culprit is an ice jam in the Thames River, not just the massive Southwestern Ontario snow melt coursing down the river, unlocked by the springlike weather and heavy rainfall a week after a deep freeze. While officials say they expect a replay of last brush with what might have been a record disaster, they took no chances Thursday, issuing a flood warning for Chatham and zeroing in on the ice jam now lodged around the Prairie Siding bridge, about 12 kilometres southwest of Chatham.

That jam huge floating chunks of ice and debris, which formed Wednesday night has caused the river to rise, backing up into Chatham and making basement flooding in its downtown riverside business district unavoidable. Late Thursday, officials said the ice jam had begun to move but cautioned such jams are unpredictable and can easily form again downstream. had people out there three or four times Jason Wintermute, an official with the Lower Thames Valley Conservation Authority, said earlier in the day. The low-lying Chatham area is vulnerable to flooding from ice jams downriver and at the mouth of the Thames where it empties into Lake St. Clair.

But because traditional ways to break that ice blowing it up, or calling in tug boats to clear it can be ineffective and dangerous, the conservation authority is instead turning to other ood defences. now operating its Sixth Street dam and pumping station in Chatham, which is expected to protect the south end of the city along McGregor Creek from flooding. The situation it can take a while for water flowing through the Thames to reach Chatham from the upper reaches is and said Chatham-Kent fire Chief Bob Crawford. no disaster. no state of he said after a Thursday afternoon meeting with municipal cials at Chatham- civic centre.

mayor decided that he would prefer to be prepared. monitoring and preparing, and planning to see how going to Firefighters and economic development personnel went door to door Thursday, checking in on downtown businesses and providing updates. The river level was 4.15 metres above normal Thursday, and expected to peak at 4.65 metres Friday, still shy of the 5.25 metres above normal to which it rose late last February, causing flooding that triggered a state of emergency in the city and evacuations of affected areas. Chatham-Kent Mayor Darrin Canniff said safety is the priority. want to emphasize, stay away from the he said.

a common-sense thing. heavy flows moving there and you just never know. The banks might be weak. We want anybody falling cials expect the river to top out couple of feet lower than what we had last said Wintermute, the conservation water management supervisor. The last time ice jammed at Prairie Siding with similar flows in the river, water levels in Chatham rose an additional 0.7 metres from where they were early Thursday, the conservation authority said.

If that happens, the fallout would be levels similar to those seen in floods of 2008-09 and 1985. But the authority also noted ice thickness was significantly greater in the 1985 ice-jam flood. If conditions change to bring water levels of that era, there could be expansive flooding near downtown and other effects downstream in the Raleigh and Dover areas and into the town of Lakeshore. Chatham-Kent is working closely with the conservation authority and will determine next steps based on all variables, including river flows and weather, said Thomas Kelly, its general manager of infrastructure and engineering. Last flooding was far more widespread than what appears to be in the cards, causing hardships.

But it also provided valuable experience for emergency crews, Crawford said. learned an awful lot about how to respond, how to communicate, how to collaborate between our he said. is a co-ordinated team approach and a group of highly skilled professionals. very hopeful this is going to be a non-event, (that) the jam will move downstream, the rain come, and the waters recede. do prepare for the worst and hope for the Ice jams on Thames pose flood threat to Chatham Chatham-Kent firefighters watch conditions on the Thames River in downtown Chatham on Thursday.

businesses. TREVOR TERFLOTH BY THE NUMBERS Currently: 4.15 metres above normal Expected: 4.65 metres above normal 2018 flood: 5.25 metres above normal Forecast: 15-20 mm rain Figures from the Lower Thames Valley Conservation Authority THAMES RIVER IN CHATHAM ELLWOOD SHREVE CHATHAM If all goes as planned, the Municipality of Chatham-Kent could have an added celebration on Canada Day the opening of a new $36-million casino in Chatham. Members of council and local media toured the construction site recently and received an update on the project from Tony Santo, CEO of Gateway Casinos Entertainment, which will operate the facility. He gave credit to the partnership been developed with the municipality from the infancy stage of the project up to now, adding this is evident by the fact construction is ahead of schedule. He cited the work Chatham-Kent did in helping with the planning, site selection and with the permitting process.

really excited and anxious to get the property Santo said. Finishes are being applied to the exterior of the building, which should be fully sealed when large glass sections are installed within a few weeks. Robert Principe, project manager with BLT Construction Services the firm contracted to build the facility said the finish stage of the project will begin about mid-March, which should take about four months. If all goes well, this could be reduced to months, he said. Principe said the original target completion date was Aug.

15 and now tracking for July Chatham-Kent Mayor Darrin Canniff is pleased to hear praise for efforts to help make the casino project go smoothly. really makes a statement that open for he said. is one example, but we want every business to have the same Staff currently working at the slots facility in Dresden, will have the opportunity to move over to Chatham, Santo said. New casino expected to open for Canada Day Tony Santo TORONTO Lawyers for a transgen der girl fighting the Ontario repeal of a modernized sex-ed curriculum say the document should be reinstated to protect their 11-year-old client and other LGBTQ students from discrimination, at least until a new lesson plan is developed. In closing arguments Thursday at the human rights tribunal, the legal team said the government was putting the sixth- grader identified only as AB at a disadvantage by the absence of mandatory gender identity lessons in the current temporary curriculum.

needs this information her lawyer Marcus McCann said. this information is not taught this year there is no way to go back and teach it that window will have The case before the tribunal was launched in August and focuses on the impact of the curriculum repeal on LGBTQ students. The Progressive Conservative government announced last summer that it was scrapping the updated version of the curriculum brought in by the previous Liberal regime in 2015. That document included warnings about online bullying and sexting, but opponents, especially social conservatives, objected to the parts of the plan addressing same-sex marriage, gender identity and masturbation. An interim curriculum based on a version from 1998 is in place while a new lesson plan is under development.

McCann said the actions, specifically excluding references to gender identity in the interim curriculum, increased the risk of AB being bullied. sends a message that trans people he said. McCann said the tribunal should order the government to ensure any new curriculum is compliant with human rights code. Lawyers for the Ontario government have argued the interim curriculum introduced last fall does not discriminate against students, saying teachers can expand on required by the document. Teachers make their own lesson plans, the lawyers have noted, and language in the introduction of the curriculum opens the door for them to discuss LG BTQ issues.

The Canadian Press Reinstate nixed sex-ed curriculum, say lawyers for trans girl A6 FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2019 WINDSOR STAR.