Close eye on the Columbia

Photo: Contributed

BC Hydro officials are keeping a close eye on water levels in the Columbia River system, but say forecasts show there shouldn’t be any flooding in the Kootenays this year.

However, that doesn’t mean there won’t be some close calls if the weather doesn’t co-operate.

“On the Columbia and Kootenay, there is certainly a heightened concern this year because the snowpack is way higher,” says Gillian Kong, operations planner for BC Hydro.

Officials gave a media briefing Tuesday forecasting water management for the next two months as the snowpack melts in the Columbia Basin drainage area.

They say while everything had looked like it was going to be an average or even below-normal year, “things changed quickly” in March with heavy spring rains. Precipitation and snowpack levels put the water supply from below-normal to as much as 138 per cent above.  

“All that rain went to building snow in the higher elevations,” says Kong. That snow is now melting, pushing river and lake levels to new highs.

Kong says officials are keeping an especially close eye on water levels on Kootenay and Arrow Lakes, where water could go above flood levels.

On Kootenay Lake, officials are draining the system as fast as possible, but the record precipitation has created ‘unprecedented’ water flows. Runoff into the lake is 128 per cent of normal, and it's sitting at about three feet below flood level.

Arrow Lake may have to be filled to capacity – and beyond – to help manage water levels downstream. Current measurements show the lake is about 24 feet below full capacity, but it's expected to peak at two feet below capacity in mid-late July.

Hydro is working closely with the US Army Corps of Engineers, who operate the Libby Dam on the American side of the Columbia, upstream from Kootenay Lake. 

The Columbia River system drains an area about the size of France. Four dams control the water flow in Canada for both power generation and flood control and are managed under the Columbia River Treaty.