Lake level finally dropping

Property owners and recreationalists can breathe a sigh of relief as the water level on Rainy Lake continues to drop.
“The good news is that it is still going down,” said Rick Cousins, senior water resources engineer for the International Rainy Lake Board of Control.
As of Monday morning, Rainy Lake was measured at 338.52 metres (1,110.63 ft.), down from 338.56 m (1,110.76 ft.) on Friday morning.
The level peaked Thursday at 338.56 m (1,10.77 ft.) and has continued to drop since then. “It is dropping at a rate of over one cm a day, or half-an-inch a day,” Cousins noted.
Water still is being stored on Namakan Lake to help control water levels on Rainy—and it may be some time before lake levels return to normal.
“Last year it took almost four weeks to get back under the rule curve,” Cousins said. “This year . . . it could be three to four weeks before it gets back under the rule curve.”
Still, Rainy Lake may not be out of the woods just yet if Mother Nature decides to dump more rain on the region. “There’s always a risk of very heavy rainfall causing things to turn around,” Cousins warned.
“Last year, we had levels back [to normal] by early July but at the end of July, we had rainfall of up to eight inches [raising lake levels again],” he added.
But with all the dam gates open and the maximum water flowing out of Rainy Lake, Cousins said it would take a substantial amount of rainfall to make much of a difference now.