News Blog – Page 2

Weekly Lake and River Update from Catalyst Paper – June 1

June 2, 2020 by CowichanWatershedBoard Leave a Comment

Cowichan Lake levels graph. Year over year comparison at June 1 2020 (Source: Catalyst Paper)

Every week during the ‘control’ season when the weir spill gates and boat locks and is in use (closed or partly closed), Catalyst Paper Mill’s Environment Manager provides an update by email to anyone interested. Excerpt below re-posted with permission. The full update can be viewed at https://www.catalystpaper.com/page/cowichan-water-management-information

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Weekly email update from Catalyst Paper, June 1, 2020:

Good day,

Conditions remain nearly ideal in the watershed regarding water inventory.

The lake remains at 100% full and flow remains at 15 cms, a bit higher than 15 cms due to the high lake level.

Snow pack melting has sustained the higher flows and will continue to support 15 cms to June 15 when the flow will ramp down to 7 cms.

Weather forecast shows rainfall in coming 7 days but not much rainfall predicted to arrive at Lake Cowichan area.

Regards,
Brian Houle, Manager, Environment, Catalyst Crofton

Cowichan River levels – year over year comparison. June 1 2020 (Catalyst graph)

Heather Mountain Snow pack levels (Catalyst graph)

Weekly Lake and River Update from Catalyst Paper – May 25

May 25, 2020 by CowichanWatershedBoard Leave a Comment

Cowichan Lake Level graph for May-25-2020. (Catalyst Paper)

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Weekly email update from Catalyst Paper, May 25 2020:

Greetings on another wet day,

Lake remains at 100% full and just a little bit over full.

Flow remains at 16 cms given the lake remains in this high level condition.

Rainfall is predicted this week but not much rainfall and expecting the flow will be reduced to seasonal target of 15 cms.

Once river flow is at 15 cms, that flow will be sustained until June 15.

Snow pack continues to melt and helping sustain the higher river flows.

Regards,
Brian Houle, Manager, Environment, Catalyst Crofton

Cowichan River level graph for May 25 2020. (Catalyst Paper)

Weekly Lake and River Update from Catalyst Paper – May 18

May 20, 2020 by CowichanWatershedBoard Leave a Comment

Cowichan River Level May 18 2020

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Weekly email update from Catalyst Paper, May 19 2020:

Good morning everyone,

Conditions remain very good with lake holding at 100% full. River flow from Cowichan Lake is at 17 cms this morning and current minimum authorized river flow is 15 cms. With lake full and with some wet weather in forecast for this week it is possible flow will remain above 15 cms.

Snow pack is melting and as of current snow pack reading, there is now as much snow in the hills as there was in total last year.

A flow of 15 cms will be sustainable through to the end of that fisheries flow window ending on June 15.

Regards,
Brian Houle, Manager, Environment, Catalyst Crofton

Cowichan Lake Level graph May 18 2020. Catalyst Paper

Weekly Lake and River Update from Catalyst Paper – May 11

May 11, 2020 by CowichanWatershedBoard Leave a Comment

Catalyst_lake level graph for May 11 2020

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From: Houle, Brian (Crofton)
Sent: 11 May 2020, 08:59
Subject: Weekly lake river update

Good morning everyone,

Good news again this week with lake at 100% full and flow from lake at 32 cms (fisheries guidance flow is 15 cms).

What a difference a year makes – the lake has 2x as much water in it today as compared to lake level last year on this day.

The flow from the lake is 2x higher than the needed flow due to how much water we have and this condition will continue given the predicted wet warm weather melting the remaining snow pack.

Note that in 2019 the snow pack was fully melted by end of May and in 2020 we may still have snow pack melting in June.

Regards,
Brian Houle, Manager, Environment, Catalyst Crofton

Weekly Lake and River Update from Catalyst Paper – April 29

April 30, 2020 by CowichanWatershedBoard Leave a Comment

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From: Houle, Brian (Crofton)
Sent: Thursday, April 29, 2020 11:44 AM
Subject: Weekly update of Cowichan

Greetings everyone,
This morning the lake has arrived at 99% full and I expect with predicted rainfall that the weir could be overfull by end of the week.

Catalyst is authorized to operate the control or flood gates to control river flow only if the lake is at most 10 cm above full lake level. If lake level rises to above full supply and continues to rise toward 10 cm above full supply, the gates would be opened to keep lake level from rising further.

On Friday, May 1, the plan is to begin to ramp the river flow down from 25 cms to the seasonal 15 cms. The spring flow guidance of 15 cms begins on May 1 and continues through to June 15 and is needed for fish/fish habitat values. For example, by end of day Friday the flow from Cowichan Lake is targeted to be 2 cms less than it was in the morning – expect a flow of 23 cms by end of day.
The ramping will continue daily and expect the river flow will stabilize at 15 cms on Tuesday May 5 depending on rainfall.

Flows will remain higher if rainfall arrives given there is no where to store any more water in Cowichan Lake. Snow pack continues to melt and with more snow pack than last year, higher flows will be sustainable this year.

Regards,
Brian Houle, Manager, Environment, Catalyst Crofton

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