Complaints dried up as water levels dropped

Ken Johnston
Editor

“The boards are not God and can’t make it rain!” said Gord Roberts,Canadian Commissioner of the International Joint Commission (IJC).
That was really the only concern addressed at the annual meeting of the International Rainy Lake Board of Control and International Rainy River Water Pollution Board, held at the Rainy River Legion Friday morning.
Last year people attended the meetings in droves to complain about the high water levels produced last June when the area received its second highest rainfall in recorded history. Then after that storm rain virtually dried up as the watershed received its driest period since 1912 from September of 2002 to June of 2003.
Colonel Bob Ball of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers gave a brief presentation showing the inflow charts for Namakan Lake and Rainy Lake over the past year. He noted that levels on Rainy Lake dropped below rule cure (the recommended operating range) this spring and recently reached drought line levels. “We try to manage and balance a series of lakes to the least detriment to all involved,” explained Ball.
With that in mind they actually kept outflows on Rainy Lake into the Rainy River higher than they should have for a period of about 2.5 weeks after the levels dropped below the rule curve. “We stayed at 100 cubic metres per second to help the sturgeon spawn,” said Ball. “This was agonizing because we knew the folks on Rainy Lake would be suffering more than they thought they should. But we did it because it was the right thing to do.”
Not to anyone’s surprise the turn out at Friday’s meeting was small with only 24 people including about a dozen officials with the IJC, RLCB, IRRWPB and other government agencies attended.
“When the water is high we get a lot of people at these meetings, usually to complain,” said Commissioner Roberts.
One question was asked with regards to what is being done to help Rainy Lake on Lake of the Woods. Rick Walden of the Lake of the Woods Water Control Board noted that outflows are at a minimum with only 150 cubic metres per second flowing into the Winnipeg River system. The average outflow for this time of year is about 460 cubic metres per second.
Ed Eaton, United States Engineering Advisor, asked if anyone locally had any navigation issues.
A few members of the public noted that in some places people can’t get their boats in the water and there are a lot more sand bars getting hit. Eaton said, “We don’t think there is a crisis situation downstream (from Rainy Lake) yet, but if there is we will consider increasing the outflow of Rainy Lake.”
Both Eaton and Walden said that Rainy Lake is now starting to recover as there has been some rain in the area, but it is a big lake and takes a long time to rise. They did say more rain would help, but that is up to Mother Nature.
Commissioner Roberts noted that there are efforts afoot to try and create a basin board that would help make decisions for the entire watershed rather than having one board for Rainy Lake, Rainy River and Lake of the Woods all making decisions independently. He said after the meeting that he thinks it would be a good idea, but noted that some of the boards involved in the amalgamation process are resisting the change.