Staff
With the exception of three days and one centimetre, water levels on Rainy Lake this year have remained within the mandated rule curve.
“We did very, very well, basically because Mother Nature was kind to us this year,” Col. Michael Price, co-chair of the International Rainy Lake Board of Control, said during Tuesday evening’s annual joint public meeting for the IRLBC and International Rainy River Water Pollution Board at Rainy River Community College in International Falls.
“We had a pretty wet fall—and a pretty early snow pack, and that led to a very large snow pack, above-normal snow pack, through the wintertime,” Col. Price explained while going over charts of both in-flow and out-flow levels seen on the lake over the past year.
There was a lot of rain in April, he noted. But with the exception of a little bit of rain in June, it’s otherwise been dry.
Ideally, the dams here and at Kettle Falls open and close gates according to water in-flow and out-flows throughout the system to ensure levels remain within a designated “rule curve” or band.
But other factors beyond the gates have an impact on water levels, such as environmental
conditions seen in past years, varying between extreme dry conditions or extreme rainfall.
“Based on the precipitation that we’ve had since one year ago to the winter to the spring, and about where we are today, and with in-flows and out-flows, the two companies did very well at managing the flows out of the lake and into the river,” said Col. Price.
“There were only three days where we exceeded the upper level, and only exceeded it by one cm for three days,” he noted.
A similar situation was found on the Namakan chain of lakes over the past year, added Col. Price, with Crane Lake rising slightly above the rule curve at one point but otherwise remaining in the band.
In other news, the IRLBC is looking to review the given rule curve for 2015—and whether or not this curve will be changed or not for that year.
