June 14, 2004

Manitoba Water Stewardship will continue to operate the Red River Floodway control structure in an effort to prevent sewer back-up problems inside Winnipeg.

There was very little change in the gate settings over the weekend. This week the settings will remain unchanged, allowing river levels to decline slowly as river flows subside. The gradual decline should help reduce the chance of bank slumping both in the city and in areas upstream (south) of the control structure.

Red River

·         Levels of the Red River fell slowly from St. Adolphe to Winnipeg over the weekend. The river is beginning to fall faster upstream (south) with declines of two feet in the Emerson area over the weekend.

·         With favourable weather, the river level should subside to 8.5 feet (walkway level) in downtown Winnipeg by June 22.

·         Once downtown levels reach eight feet, the floodway gates will be lowered slowly to reduce water levels from the control structure to Ste. Agathe.

·         With favourable weather, the normal summer level (6.3 feet downtown) should be achieved near the end of June.

·         Rain forecasts for Tuesday could produce a minor run-off and may reduce the rate of decline of the Red and its tributaries.

Winnipeg River

·         The Winnipeg River level at Nutimik Lake is 906 feet and is likely to remain near this level for the next few weeks. Recreational interests are being significantly impacted by the high levels which are five feet above the summer average.

Souris River

·         Levels of the Souris River continue to rise slowly but, with favourable weather, additional rises should be less than one foot. Flooding of hay lands in the Coulter area is likely to continue until the end of June.

Assiniboine River

·         The Assiniboine River continues to rise slowly but no problems are anticipated.

·         At this time, it appears there will be no need to increase the outflow from Shellmouth Reservoir above the current 1,200 cubic feet per second as the reservoir level has stabilized at 1,406.6 feet or 1.9 feet below the spillway.

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