Alcan Adjusting & Monitoring Flows Into Nechako

By 250 News

Alcan officials appeared before Vanderhoof Councillors last night to offer the latest update on snowpack levels in the Nautley watershed, what that might mean for release levels at the Kenney Dam spillway, and, ultimately, what it will mean to the level of the Nechako River.

Vanderhoof Emergency Coordinator and Fire Chief, Jim Hurtado, says, right now, the Nechako remains well below the flood stage within the community.

Hurtado says, "Alcan is monitoring their end and adjusting flows because the Nautley River system (that feeds into the dam) is continuing to come up." 

He says the target flow rate at the Burrard Bridge in Vanderhoof is between 400- and 500-metres per second and Alcan tries to maintain that flow by adjusting water release at the spillway.  Hurtado says, "Right now, we're in that target, but the Nechako is starting to rise because the Nautley is continuing to come up because of the melt in the watershed."

"The reservoir right now is at approximately 27-hundred-90-feet and they (Alcan) want to keep it below the 28-hundred-foot level, but they've got to drop it quite a bit more to let all the snowmelt go into the reservoir," says the Emergency Coordinator, "So this is why Alcan is trying to dump as much water as they possibly can - to lower that reservoir, so it can hold the run-off."

Hurtado says no homes or businesses in Vanderhoof are in any immediate danger of flooding, although a driveway  has a bit of water over it.  He says municipal staff continue to monitor the river level on a daily basis and they're "waiting to see what Mother Nature does with the unknowns."

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