EDI is excited to announce that we have won the Environmental Assessment Award from the Environmental Managers Association of British Columbia (EMAofBC). This award recognizes our team’s work on the Mill Creek Diversion project in Kelowna, BC.
Working as the Environmental Project Lead, EDI joined a team led by CIMA+ for the City of Kelowna on this multi-phase project. The team was fortunate to have Okanagan Nation Alliance (ONA) play a key role in fish and fish habitat components of the work, including the aquatic habitat assessment and design specifications, which culminated in instream enhancements such as riffles and floodplain re-engagement.
For context… The Mill Creek Diversion is critical flood-protection infrastructure that conveys high flows from the Mill Creek watershed to the adjacent Mission Creek watershed during freshet, reducing flood risk in downtown Kelowna. Originally designed and constructed in the late 1980s, the capacity of the diversion had become insufficient to manage recent flood conditions, requiring upgrades that improve public safety, while addressing sensitive aquatic, riparian, wildlife and regulatory considerations.
The project… Upgrades to the Mill Creek Diversion included upsizing and improving the diversion dam structure and adding upstream dikes. To address the need for longer-lead permits while allowing priority flood-protection improvements to proceed, the project was advanced through a phased permitting and construction approach. In this way, initial improvements could be started more quickly to reduce community flood risk, while longer-term designs and permitting for the larger dike works were being completed.
To get critical flood protections in place quickly, the project was split into two phases:
- Phase 1 (beginning in December 2021): focused on upgrading mechanical systems (e.g., trash rake and updated gates) and numerous existing structures (e.g., increasing the intake wall height, extending the spillway area on the right bank, installing a spillway wall in front of the trash rack and creating a fish passage pool upstream of the weir opening)
- Phase 2 (beginning in July 2023): involved building new upstream dikes to safely contain peak floodwaters within a confined floodplain and improve the flow of water toward Mission Creek.
Habitat restoration… Environmental restoration was a central part of this project, blending flood mitigation with significant ecological benefits. To meet regulatory requirements from Fisheries and Oceans Canada and the City of Kelowna, several habitat improvements were implemented including:
- restoring previously disturbed areas by replanting trees and vegetation
- building new aquatic features, including two riffles, five areas with large woody debris along the streambanks and two floodplain channels within the diked corridor
- installing nest boxes for the Western Screech-Owl
Annual habitat monitoring for compliance and effectiveness is taking place in prescribed years (i.e., Years 1, 2, 3, 5 and 10), with Year 1 monitoring beginning in 2025.
EDI’s role… Throughout the project, EDI’s role on the project spanned design, permitting and construction, including baseline and environmental assessments, regulatory strategy, construction environmental management planning, offsetting plans and environmental monitoring. EDI’s work supported environmentally informed design modifications and mitigation strategies, including riparian management, fish passage considerations, aquatic habitat enhancement, wildlife mitigation and construction protection measures. The team navigated a complex regulatory regime spanning municipal, provincial and federal permitting requirements and secured key approvals under the Development Permit process, Water Sustainability Act and Fisheries Act, while supporting related Dike Act and Dam Safety Act submissions.
Project legacy and recognition… The Mill Creek Diversion project proved that critical infrastructure upgrades can provide lasting public safety benefits, while at the same time creating meaningful environmental gains. The project improved fish passage, enhanced aquatic and riparian habitat, and incorporated ecological compensation measures and additional wildlife measures.
In addition to the EMAofBC Environmental Assessment Award, the project has also received the 2025 Canadian Consulting Engineering Award of Excellence and the 2025 FIDIC Global Infrastructure Award (small-medium category) in recognition of its innovative approach to combining flood protection, climate adaptation, ecosystem restoration and community resilience within a single infrastructure project. The awards highlight the project’s ability to protect critical infrastructure and hundreds of properties, while simultaneously delivering lasting environmental and social benefits through sustainable, multidisciplinary engineering solutions.
If you would like to learn more about the environmental support our team can provide to your project, please visit Our Services webpage.
