LMT_Apr_17_2022_Vol_116_issue_17 v2

12 lmtimes.ca • Last Mountain Times • Monday, April 17, 2023
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In the east, the water appears lower, becoming noticeably
higher the further west you travel. Under
the old Highway 6 bridge, water flows around and
over what looks like an iceberg mass beneath. The
ice is in various degrees of erosion.
When I get to the Craven Dam, I luck out, and
Water Security Agency staff are out making adjustments
to the flow by raising the dam's gates slowly.
When extreme flooding occurred in 2011, these
gates were wide open. One of the people out today
is Water Security Manager of Operations & Maintenance,
Brad McClinton.
The sound of the rushing water, as it passes
through the gates, is surprisingly loud. It’s a sound
one doesn’t normally equate to southern Saskatchewan
life. If you close your eyes, you can almost
imagine being at a waterfall on Vancouver Island.
Instead, it’s run-of-the-mill springtime along the
Qu’Appelle River at the Craven Dam. Beautiful in
its own right. The dam regulates water flow along
the river as it heads west towards the next dam at
Echo Lake.
McClinton said that it came in fast overnight, and
they were there to open the gate “to naturalize the
flow,” The flow rate was normal for the temperature
changes that occurred. Sask Water Security Agency
has a forecasting group monitoring the runoff and
balancing the flows through the Qu’Appelle system.
There will likely be several peaks. McClinton said
the water was quite low the day before. “We saw
this morning that it had come up substantially.
So we got out here to open it up to let it naturally
work.” They regularly return to the dam to gradually
open the gates at an even pace so the flow erodes
the ice instead of shattering it. He said it’s better
when the ice breaks up into smaller pieces. McClinton
tells me, “So it’s weakened deteriorated ice, so
when it does break up, its smaller pieces. It basically
breaks itself up as it touches another piece of ice,
going smaller and smaller.”
“We try to do everything we need to to make sure
the flows are where we need them.”
It will take a while for the water to migrate downstream
to the next dam in the chain at Echo. The
flow forecasters will monitor it for the right time
when they can set the water at the recreational
levels we all enjoy without causing flooding.
We contacted Sask Water to see if there has been
any new information and will update this story if
more information becomes available.
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