Water levels very low in region

Ken Johnston
Editor

The river runs dry...
Well not quite but tributaries into the Rainy River are all extremely low this spring which has prompted the Lake of the Woods and Rainy Lake Water Control Boards to reduce outflows of their respective lakes to the lowest outflow allowed in their governing rule curves.
Rick Walden of LWCB said Friday that the period from November 1, 2002 to March 31, 2003 was the lowest for precipitation on record since the early 1900s, being less than half of what the region normally gets in the winter.
Walden said that Lake of the Woods is currently sitting at 1057.6 feet above sea level, which is in the bottom of the rule curve for the lake. However, historically the lake is around that level about 1 in every 4 years. “But the 1980s and 1990s were relatively stable. Things seem to be getting more variable now.” said Walden.
While shorelines are getting wider and wider as the lack of rain and runoff continues Walden said the watershed was in much the same shape last spring. That is until more than a foot of rain fell across the area in a few days and flooded much of the area.
Walden is hopeful that spring rains will help bring the water levels on area lakes and the Rainy River further up into the rule curve.
“The long term forecasts do not show anything but normal weather (patterns),” said Walden. He also noted that El Nino in the Pacific Ocean has weakened, further adding to the probability that things will return to normal weatherwise.
If the rain does not come there is an emergency rule curve that the control boards can enact, which would see the outflows at the dams in Fort Frances and Kenora cut back even further.
The lack of snow over the winter has also seen the forest drying up quickly this spring. If spring rain does not come the Ministry of Natural Resources said the area could be in for an early and dangerous fire season.
Walden said Lake of the Woods was much lower than it is now in the 1930s, but people are still worried. “Many of the complaints we have had involve the swing from an extreme high last summer to this low. We are trying to keep the outflows where they are now for the spawning season.”