News Blog – Page 3

Weekly Lake and River Update from Catalyst Paper – May 18

May 20, 2020 by CowichanWatershedBoard Leave a Comment

Cowichan River Level May 18 2020

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, 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

Weekly Lake and River Update from Catalyst Paper – April 23

April 27, 2020 by CowichanWatershedBoard Leave a Comment

Cowichan Lake Levels graph by Catalyst Paper

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From: Houle, Brian (Crofton)
Sent: Thursday, April 23, 2020 9:20 AM
Subject: Weekly update of Cowichan

Greetings, Wet weather over previous few days is showing up as increasing lake level trend and lake level continues to rise this
morning. The flow from Cowichan Lake remains at the ideal seasonal flow of 25 cms and lake level is at about 90% full.
With rainfall continuing to be predicted for coming 7 days it is possible that 25 cms can be sustained through to end of
April as per the plan. Issues with the Snow Pillow at Heather Mountain were resolved yesterday and the pillow is again reporting current
snow pack. The updated snow pack trend shows the recent warm weather has begun melting snow at Heather Mtn. snow pillow as
well as Jump Creek snow pillow. [message abbreviated….] Regards,
Brian Houle, Manager, Environment, Catalyst Crofton

Work begins on new weir for Cowichan Lake

April 22, 2020 by CowichanWatershedBoard Leave a Comment

Weir spill gates _ citizen files

A contract has been awarded to Stantec Engineering Services to do designs, engineering and studies

Andrea Rondeau

Apr. 22, 2020 12:00 p.m.

Work to bring a new weir to Cowichan Lake to control water flows into the Cowichan River has started.

“On behalf of the project partners, we are all very relieved to see this project come to fruition and reiterate our thanks to our senior governments for their funding support,” said Aaron Stone, chair of the Cowichan Valley Regional District and co-chair of the Cowichan Watershed Board. “As our Cowichan climate becomes increasingly warmer and drier, maintaining adequate river flows in our key watersheds will be critical to the health of our region going forward.”

The CVRD announced Wednesday, April 22 that a contract has been awarded to Stantec Engineering Services to do designs, engineering and studies needed to build the new weir.

“The existing weir structure, constructed in the 1950s, is no longer capable of storing enough water to maintain flows in the Cowichan River during increasingly dryer summer and fall months,” said a press release from the CVRD. “The project follows many years of study, and will support future grant applications for the necessary funding to construct a new weir.”

The CVRD also announced that local resident Leroy Van Wieren, who has extensive experience managing large and complex projects, has been hired by the CVRD as the project manager.

The CVRD is directing the project on behalf of partners Cowichan Tribes, Paper Excellence and the Cowichan Watershed Board, and is being funded, in part, by a joint provincial and federal grant from the British Columbia Salmomn Recovery Innovation Fund announced in 2019.

[Read more…]

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