Winnipeg River, already flowing at a record volume, slated to rise even higher

The Winnipeg River is flowing at a file quantity in Manitoba as a result of officers not have every other choice to manage flooding throughout an enormous swath of northwestern Ontario and northern Minnesota.

Flooding on the Winnipeg River, which is working at about three-and-a-half occasions larger its regular quantity this time of yr, has already pressured a whole bunch of individuals from their properties and washed out roads in Whiteshell Provincial Park.

That is the results of inflows which can be solely anticipated to extend within the coming days, elevating water ranges as much as two-thirds of a metre larger in some areas in Manitoba.

‘We’re seeing file inflows into the Winnipeg River system, inflows that we have by no means seen earlier than,” stated Scott Powell, Manitoba Hydro’s communications director.

In line with the Lake of the Woods Management Board, the river was flowing at 120,000 cubic ft per second on Tuesday at Seven Sisters Falls, which is extra than the water which flowed down the Purple River this spring on the top of this yr’s flood.

Officers on either side of the Manitoba-Ontario border say the amount is unprecedented however there’s nothing any company can do to scale back the flows.

The river drains an space bigger than the Maritimes and virtually all of it’s flooding, stated Matthew DeWolfe, govt engineer with the Lake of the Woods Management Board.

“There’s actually nowhere else to place the water,” DeWolfe stated Tuesday in an interview from his workplace in Ottawa.

“Principally, the watershed is full and there is nowhere for it to go besides to circulate downstream, and sadly, all that space drains into that very slim channel we name the Winnipeg River.”

The Lake of the Woods Management Board is answerable for managing water ranges on each Lake of the Woods, which drains immediately into the Winnipeg River, in addition to Lac Seul, which drains into the Winnipeg River by way of the English River.

The board has been pressured to launch water from Lac Seul as a result of a dam on that lake might be threatened if water exceeds the utmost degree, DeWolfe stated.

Lake of the Woods rising

The board can also be draining as a lot water as it will probably from Lake of the Woods, the place the lake degree has now risen to the purpose the place wave motion in its southern basin threatens residential properties and agricultural land in Minnesota, Ontario and one small nook of Manitoba, Buffalo Level, that juts into the lake.

“That space may be very flat and it is a very unstable shoreline,” stated DeWolfe, explaining that the southwestern shore of Lake of the Woods is grassy and shallow like a prairie lake, not rocky and steep the way in which it’s at Kenora.

“It is a very open bay on the south finish of Lake of the Woods and when the winds, once they choose up, they create big waves.”

In its newest forecast for Lake of the Woods, the management board expects the lake to rise one other 10 to 13 centimetres over the subsequent week. On the identical time, flows out of Lac Seul proceed to be excessive.

Meaning flows alongside the Winnipeg River ought to proceed to rise for a number of extra weeks, DeWolfe stated.

“It is a very, very gradual fee of rise proper now, until we get a big quantity of precipitation,” he stated, including he couldn’t predict with any certainty when waters will recede, given the huge space experiencing flooding.

“We’re coping with circumstances which have by no means been seen earlier than, so there’s nothing to match it to.”

Hydro cannot maintain it again

Manitoba Hydro, which operates six dams on the Winnipeg River west of the Ontario border, has no capacity to carry any water again, communications director Scott Powell stated.

“These are run-of-river vegetation, as we name them. We do not have massive reservoirs in entrance of any of our stations on the Winnipeg River,” Powell stated Tuesday in an interview.

“In order these flows are available in, now we have to cross them down the river, by way of our spillways, by way of our producing stations and generators and proceed to cross it down to maneuver that water,” he added.

“It doesn’t matter what we do in sure spots, there is a restrict to how briskly that sure areas of the of the river will drop due to pure restrictions within the pure watercourse.”

On Tuesday, officers with Manitoba Infrastructure and Transportation stated they have been targeted on conserving property house owners protected and can take into account a compensation program later.

Jay Doering, a College of Manitoba civil engineering professor, stated cottagers alongside the Winnipeg River could have to begin making a few of the identical choices Purple River Valley property house owners made after the 1997 Flood of the Century destroyed or broken hundreds of properties.

“It’s a must to have that actuality verify: Am I going to rebuild or am I going to stroll away from this,” Doering stated Tuesday in an interview. 

“And if I will rebuild and carry it larger, is it going to look ridiculous means up on stilts?”

Powell stated he would not speculate on the need to maneuver or elevate any cottages or properties alongside the Winnipeg River simply but.

“These are definitely the best inflows we have seen since 1907, when data started. So it is definitely not a typical prevalence,” he stated.