Watching Water Levels

With the hot weather we've had in most of Yukon over the last few weeks, we've had some questions about possible flooding in the Southern Lakes. The summer of 2007 is still fresh in many people's minds, when local residents spent long hours sandbagging to try to save their properties from flood damage.

Yukon Energy is often asked what we can do to help prevent flooding of people's properties in high water years. There is a misconception that if we would only let more water through our Whitehorse dam or our Lewes Lake gates, there wouldn't be a flooding problem.

The truth is that under our water license, we must have all our gates open no later than May 15 of each year. That means that we hold no water back during the summer months, and we have no ability to increase the water flow from the Southern Lakes. We've had studies done that show even if we opened our gates earlier in the spring, it would have no effect on the peak water levels later in the summer. There's just too much water coming into Marsh Lake compared to what is able to flow out (think of filling a sink with a firefighter's hose....the drain can't handle the volume of water coming in to the sink from the hose). In the case of the Southern Lakes, the Yukon River and Miles Canyon act as bottlenecks.

While we can't prevent flooding, what we can do is share information with local residents about what we expect summer water levels to be like each year. This will help people prepare their property for possible flooding in high water years.

In 2009, after taking into account the high snow pack from the previous winter and Environment Canada's long range forecast, we expect levels to be in the vicinity of what they were in 2004. Here you will see a chart that shows a solid blue line up to the end of May, and then it turns into two dotted blue lines. The solid line is the actual water level to date. The two dotted blue lines indicate the range of anticipated summer peak water levels. This chart will be updated on a regular basis. We have also committed to emailing the chart to those local residents who request it. Please let us know if you wish to be added to the email list.