The valuable farmland in the Dover area lies precariously in the lowest area of Chatham-Kent, and the man credited for leading the charge to keep it from flooding was Eric Westerberg.
His friends and colleagues with the Municipality of Chatham-Kent are mourning the sudden passing of Westerberg, who died on Nov. 8 at age 48 due to complications of an aortic aneurysm.
“Most people would be hardpressed to name one of the top drainage engineers in Ontario,” said Thomas Kelly, general manager of engineering and infrastructure. “But, ask any farmer in the Dover area and without hesitation they will answer – Eric Westerberg.”
He said Westerberg told him many times if the municipality didn’t have its network of drains and pumps, the Dover area, which has some of the most valuable farmland, would be under water.
“Eric managed that and kept that going for 13 years.”
Tim Dick, director of drainage, asset and waste management, said Dover requires a combination of gravity drainage plus pumping schemes to keep it from flooding.
He said Westerberg did several “design build-type repairs on existing schemes to improve them, rebuild them, and make them safe, because many of them had safety issues, they were in jeopardy of not only flooding the lands, but creating a hazard to the local farmers or the (drainage) commissioners who looked after them.”
The 4,000 municipal drains located in Chatham-Kent make up 20 per cent of all drains in Ontario, with about 500 being located in Dover.
Dick said adding to the complications of being the drainage superintendent of Dover is the fact that north of Thames River, the upstream towns and lands also drain through the township.
He said Westerberg’s training as a professional engineer and work experience in the private sector in British Columbia and Michigan, as well as with Dillon Consulting in Chatham, enabled him to “re-invent the job like no one has really re-invented it before, regarding the pump systems.”
Kelly said Westerberg took a lot of pride in his job and enjoyed it.
He added Westerberg understood the importance of having good drains in Dover.
Kelly recalled an incident about three years ago when he received a call on a Sunday night about a dyke failure on Heron Line in Dover.
“By the time I got there, Eric already had a contractor on site, was already doing the repairs,” Kelly said. “He was very customer-focused, he understood the importance to the farmers and was very quick to react.”
Westerberg, who had a passion for life and his family, including his wife Lee-Ann and 17-year-old twin boys Spencer and Mitchell, is also remembered for love of cars, camping and outdoor activities.
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