| Seine River watchdogs eye concrete By Manfred Jager, Staff Writer Winnipeg Free Press, Wednesday, August 31, 1994 Chances are good that the Seine River will flow through St. Boniface unobstructed before the year is out, says the head of the Save Our Seine River Environment Inc. association. Jean Dunmire says her group has applied for city help to remove the remaining seven major blocks of concrete that obstruct the river south of Marion Street in St. Boniface. Six other blocks were broken up and removed from the river bed by the city in 1992 and the second half of the project would cost about the same amount of money required for the first phase�$12,000. Dunmire, a programs officer with the Manitoba Museum of Man and Nature, says the concrete blocks are remnants from an uncompleted bridge construction project dating back to the 1920�s and have been a particular source of trouble for the Seine between Marion Street and Fermor Avenue farther to the south. Not only do they slow the river down, but they also trap enough driftwood to collect major logjams this year. Summer students One such jam, behind Beaver Bus Lines Ltd. at 339 Archibald St., has been cleared of driftwood by a crew of 10 summer students the Save Our Seine group was able to hire with provincial financial help since May. The Winnipeg Green team, working on an eight-week summer works program was about to complete its project last week, Dunmire says. �The remaining blocks are very large and very old,� Dunmire said. �If and when we get the money to have them moved, we�ll have them broken up and moved out of the river bed. �There�s quite a bit of concern about this at city hall. I think we can reasonably hope for this to be done before this winter.� Dunmire says her group also has a major concern about the so-called siphon, a large concrete pipe that carries the Seine under the floodway. �It has been leaking and there is quite a bit of debris there also. Something clearly needs to be done about that so the water flows freely. �We�re trying to work with the province on that one. They are planning on de-watering the siphon and then repairing it.� Healthier river Dunmire says the Seine �is clearly a much healthier river now than when we started in 1990. The point is that we must be careful not to let it slide back into the condition it was then.� Some of the work the Save Our Seine group has already completed includes a bicycle path on the eat side of the river near Bishop Grandin Boulevard. An interpretive centre is being planned. Dunmire says beaver have been a particular problem along the Seine in recent years and Save Our Seine has wrapped about 2,000 trees in protective stucco wire so far. �We are urging people living along the Seine to do the same. If they can�t, either because they�re elderly or not well or not skilled, we�ll do it for them for $2 a tree. All they have to do is call us at *** **** and we�ll come and do it. Takes very little time if you know what you�re doing.� The association will hold a three-hour information open house from 7 to 10 p.m. Sept. 14 at the St. Vital civic office just south of St. Anne�s Rd. on St. Mary�s Rd. |