Flood Watch Continues
Benches at the confluence of the Nechako and Fraser rivers – photo 250News
Prince George, B.C. – “We are watching, but we are not overly concerned” says Deputy Chief Blake King of Prince George Fire Rescue., he’s talking about the threat of flooding during this freshet. The Fraser is expected to reach a peak of 8.7 metres at South Fort this week, that’s about one metre below the typical flood level for Paddlewheel Park in Prince George. While the Nechako is high, it is not causing any flooding to private residences or businesses.
The Nechako has nearly spilled over its banks into the area on the east side of the Foothills Bridge where folks like to picnic and paddle during the height of the summer.
Deputy Chief King says the typical areas in Prince George to be hit by flooding along the Nechako are DelHaven and some residences along the south side of P.G. Pulpmill Road, but so far, so good and it is largely because of the Fraser.
With the Fraser River not running too high, it means the Nechako is not backing up to where it could cause a real problem “The Fraser has been cooperating so far” says Deputy Chief King. Water levels on the Fraser at South Fort have been slowly declining, but are expected to stay in the 8.4 – 8.7 metre range for the balance of the week.
The River Forecast Centre says the Nechako River could close in on a 20 year high at Isle Pierre by Thursday, with a forecasted flow of 1020 cubic metres per second.
Meantime, the Nechako River at Vanderhoof is expected to continue to rise through the early part of the week. River flows through that community are expected to hit 670cubic metres per second by Wednesday.
Deputy Chief King says the real issue in Prince George is erosion “We are keeping an eye on a couple of spots along the Nechako” he reminds the public to be extremely cautious near the rivers, that river banks can be very unstable at this time of year because it’s impossible to know if the bank has been undermined by the power of the river.”
Comments
It may be impossible to know if the banks are undermined when the water is high, however its pretty obvious what is happening when the water is low in the fall.
We had over 65 years to deal with the flooding of the Nechako and Fraser Rivers, since they built the Kenny Dam. We know that from time to time the high water is attributable to the water release from the Skins Lake Spillway.
In any event it is high time that the City, Province, and Federal Government spent a little money to do some dredging at the mouth of the Nechako, and the East Side of the Fraser when the water is low.
In addition they need to do some serious diking through South Ft George to beyond the City’s water treatment plant.
Furthermore we need some diking on the North Side of the Nechako, and some serious ballasting on the South side of the Nechako including Cottonwood Island.
Time for our elected officials to actually take some interest in what’s happening to our rivers in the Prince George area, and do something about it. If they don’t we will eventually lose Cottonwood Park.
Wasting $36 Million on a runway extension at the Airport, or building a Wood Innovation Building for some $25 Million or $40 Million on a Police Station doesn’t cut it.
What they need to do is force greedy Alcan to spend some of their profits to construct a spillway at Kemano and quit screwing around with our communities.
Mountain in the way for a spillway.
In addition to the city, province and feds, perhaps Alcan should foot some of the bill for the items that Palopu talks about.
Hey Griz & Sea,We have to revisit the final agreement, our leaders made it pretty tough for us taxpayers to force RTA to do any thing about the flooding.Sea, the mountain has two holes in it the size of a two lane highway. (google kemano backup tunnel)All that is required is a bypass of the powerhouse to be constructed and the excess flood water could be sent 16 kms to the Pacific. I asked Pat Bell in 2012 to make it conditional in the permit to complete the second tunnel.Like I said earlier I wonder how that worked out.
High water on the Nechako and Fraser rivers are a month early this year, and could have a negative impact on the arrival of the Stuart sockeye in early July, late July, and late-run stocks in August.
With the snowpack melt and freshet occurring so early, what will the water levels be like in Fraser and, more importantly, the Nechako River in late summer and early fall? With predictions of a hot and dry summer, will the river levels be so low and/or the water temperatures so warm, that Sockeye salmon runs would experience massive die-offs? Only time will tell, as the effects of global warming become more and more acute and prevalent.
What Rio Tinto needs to do is run the reservoir lower in the winter so they get ready for the melt. Every year they complain about how high the levels are so they have to flood us out. It’s all about greed.. Rio tinto is only worried about profit and selling power to us makes them millions on millions. They make more money selling power to the grid than selling aluminum.
Sage the has been no warming for 18 years 4 months. Do think climate is benign. So I guess there was no low/high water before the dam. Actually the dam acts as a buffer reducing the flow in the river as inflow into the lakes is higher than what is being released and the river is 70% natural. So without the dams the river flow would be higher.
Ever hear of the PDO or pacific decadal oscillation?
Without the Kenny Dam you can rest assured that we would have significant flooding this year. However we have the dam, so that’s just hindsight.
Rio Tinto are required to release water into the River when the salmon are running, and hopefully there will be sufficient water behind the dam to ensure this is done.
Rio Tinto, water releases, etc; will be an ongoing problem. Protecting our banks along the Nechako and Fraser River is a Federal, Provincial, and Municipal problem, and its time to get to work on the problem.
Dredging the river, ballasting and diking the banks where needed, will solve the problem, and create a lot of work over the next five years.
Time to spend some money on real problems in this City.
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