Local state of emergency declared over risk of dam in B.C. Interior bursting

A regional district in the British Columbia Interior has declared a state of local emergency as an illegal dam threatens to burst.

The Thompson-Nicola Regional District has already issued an evacuation alert for 14 properties down river from the dam and says the emergency declaration will allow it to take action to mitigate the flood risk.

The district said on Tuesday that the unauthorized, man-made dam on Fadear Lake could fail and create "an uncontrolled release of water" into Fadear Creek in an area about 13 kilometres north of Sun Peaks Mountain.

Residents in homes along Fadear Creek were told on Monday to be ready to leave quickly due to the possible “imminent” failure of the dam.

The district says the local state of emergency is in place for the Lower North Thompson area, north of Kamloops.

It says the declaration allow authorities to use emergency powers to order residents from their homes, to stop travel and allow them to enter private lands when lives or properties are at risk.

"This declaration enables prompt co-ordination of action or special regulation of persons or property to protect the health, safety, or welfare of people or to limit damage to property," said a statement from the district.

Colton Davies, a spokesman for Thompson-Nicola Regional District, said on Tuesday the dam is at the north end of Fadear Lake where it drains into Fadear Creek.

Davies said a couple of culverts within the dam have been blocked, causing the lake level to rise, sparking concerns that the water will spill over the top of the dam.

He said it's unclear who built the dam.

The Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship said in a statement on Tuesday that the top priority is keeping people safe, and an engineer was contracted to assess the situation and prepare a plan for next steps.