The snowpack level in the Okanagan is 131 per cent of normal levels and the Similkameen is sitting at 135 per cent of normal.
Many Okanagan residents are wondering whether the valley could be set up for another damaging flood season.
“It’s a little bit too early,” said Shaun Reimer, the section head for public safety and protection with the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations.
Reimer is responsible for determining when to release water from the dam, and how much.
“The potential is just the volume of water that has to come down into the creeks, rivers, Okanagan Lake, Kalamalka Lake , just the volume can be a problem,” he said.
The province is releasing much more water from the dam than usual to prevent future flooding.
“Over the last week it’s been dropping by about a half a centimetre per day,” Reimer said.
“We’re about 11 or 12 centimetres below where we were last year and again much more aggressively trying to draw it down.”
Reimer said the province is trying to avoid spring flooding by altering lake levels.
“It’s really about drawing down the lakes in anticipation of the volume of water that we can expect with a high snow pack,” Reimer said.
Last year – when much of the Okanagan Valley experienced damaging floods – the February snowpack was only 78 per cent in the Okanagan.
Officials said record-breaking rainfall triggered the flooding and the province didn’t see it coming.
“The only silver lining would be because we see this building up, it certainly allows us better opportunity to prepare, particularly in terms of drawing down Okanagan Lake,” Reimer said.
He added that Mother Nature is unpredictable and the potential for extreme weather could result in another flood year.
“We’re getting emails and phone calls from people who were impacted last year and very concerned, I share their concern about the risk, there are people who ask me for guarantees, I wish I could give them that,” he said.
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