Ice Jam Expert Updates Council
By 250 News
Prince George, B.C. - After viewing the ice jam on the Nechako River, ice jam expert Paul Doyle has reiterated the message he delivered before Christmas. There is little that can be done, and the City will have to "ride it out".
"You want the good news first or the bad news?" Doyle asked Council.
"I will choose to go with the good news first:"
"Briefly, the ice cover is complete upstream from Isle Pierre. That is good news" says Paul Doyle . "The only open reach of the Nechako is a little upstream from Isle Pierre and the border ice is slowly coming in from both sides, and will lead to less frazzle ice coming into Prince George."
The stream flow in the Nechako is going down says Doyle which will alleviate the high water levels. "It is too bad it's taking so long, but it is going in the right direction."
Now the bad news:
There is still plenty of frazzle ice being generated in the open section of the Nechako, and its arriving in decent quantities on a daily basis.
The water level in the main body of the jam isat the highest levels it has ever been, The end result of the condilations is a thickeing of the jam. That means bigger problems for peopleliving on either side of the river.
Further bad news, says Doyle, is that the consolidations have, in two instances, punched out into the Fraser River, but that has not resulted in any lasting improvement in the situation. The 200 year flood plain has been surpassed, says Doyle, and that's apretty good indication this ice jam still packs a good punch. "There is nothing I have seen that would suggest this situation is going to end any time soon. What you have already seen three times, you are likely to get again," that means a consoldiation of ice,and a surge of water levels.
Doyle says an extended period of cold weather will thicken the existing jam and would prevent further contraction and serious high water levels "The problem then becomes if you do have another period of warm weather, which willweaken the ice jam cover, you could get something worse than you've already had."
Doyle says because of climate change we can expect this kind of problem more often, and it will become worse than it has been in the past.
Doyle says the City staff have been doing a good job,and that the current "line of defence" is the right line of defence, however, he says there needs to be more, "Specifically, you need to install, proper, costly dikes along that stretch of Nechako."
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Posted by: owl on January 7 2008 11:56 PM
Yeah, I know some of the ice is probably resting on the bottom of the river, but the water is going under it somewhere in a channel, and since these things can "fly" over water, ice, land etc. it wouldn't be too hard to follow that channel IMO. Maybe spray freezing to the skirt and undersides would make the craft too heavy in short order, and therefore useless in freezing conditions ??
Yeah, I know there's probably eighty six other reasons why this is a dumb idea, but somebody's gotta come up with some idea besides building "sides" along the river for the ice to build up against until its thick enough for the water to flow over the top again. Theoretically, if the elevation of the river is (say) 50 feet higher at Miworth, or Isle Pierre, than it is at PG, and you build dikes 45 feet high in PG, and the ice jams up against these dikes and packs right to the river bottom, then the river will still flow over the top because its still DOWNHILL to PG until you build the dikes higher than 50 feet !!
And yeah, someday we gotta dredge the sand bars away from the mouth of the Nechako, so the ice can't hit bottom and "stick" at least in one deep channel, but that's probably next summer's project at the very least, and for now, I don't see us getting out there this month or next, unless you put a long arm excavator on the deck of the hovercraft to loosen the ice here and there where its stuck on bottom, or whatever.
Anyway, just my own muses and ramblings.
palomino