Peggy Revell
With the exception of three days and one centimetre, water levels on Rainy Lake have remained within the mandated rule curve so far this year.
“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 the annual joint public meeting for the IRLBC and International Rainy River Water Pollution Board on Aug. 16 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 also 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,” Col. Price said.
“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 within the band.
The IRLBC is looking to review the given rule curve for 2015—and whether or not it will be changed for that year.
For those interested in knowing more about what’s happening when it comes to water levels, the IRLBC has updated its website so people can go online and check the current status of which sluices and gates are open.
As well, the website now features in-depth descriptions and pictures of each of the dams so people can learn more about the structures that control water levels on the lake systems.
Meanwhile, under development is a feature for the website that models the upper reaches of the Rainy River from Rainy Lake and at the dam.
This new animation will allow people to click through various settings of the dam gates based on different in-flow/out-flow scenarios—and see what opening or closing certain gates would have on water levels.
New gauges
To improve water level monitoring, the IRLBC also is working to have new gauges installed on Rainy Lake and the Rainy River.
“At our meeting last year, we had someone who came from the north arm of Rainy Lake and he said, ‘Well, I know you guys are keeping Rainy Lake within the rule curve, but where I live, we’ve got in-flows and then there is [a] held-up, backwater effects at pinch points—so [my dock] is being flooded,’” noted IRLBC co-chair Gail Faveri.
In response, the board is working on getting a water level gauge on Northwest Bay where the Pipestone river system flows in.
There’s also two new gauges going in upstream of the dam, as well as one on the lake “so that we can calibrate our model that we have for the upper rainy river,” Faveri explained.
Another gauge is set to go on the river near the Riverview condominium to measure temperature, water flows, and depth.
Faveri also spoke last Tuesday about the work the IRLBC has been doing with Seine River First Nation after Chief Earl Klyne came to the annual board meeting two years ago and spoke about the impact the water levels has on his community.
“We went last summer to visit this community and they gave us a tour of their dam and the wild rice fields, and we saw that we could do something with the sturgeon spawning,” said Faveri.
“There on the Seine River, the First Nations would be close enough to actually go out and measure when the fish are spawning and corresponding what the water levels and temperatures are,” she remarked.
In conjunction with the Ministry of Natural Resources, which supplied the equipment, the community installed transmitters in the fish and started monitoring the spawning period.
A fish consultant also was hired to write a report.
“We hope to continue this project for four more years so we’ll have five years of data,” Faveri noted.
“And we’ll be able to answer some of these questions to what are the benefits of not having the dam water . . . released—drawing up the spawning beds for the fish.”
