Higher water levels expected this weekend in Kettle River system: Regional district

Higher water levels in the Kettle River system in B.C.’s Southern Interior are expected this weekend, according to the regional district.

On Thursday, the Regional District of Kootenay Boundary said it is continuing to watch river levels “as they move toward peak flows anywhere from seven to 10 days from now, depending upon weather.”

The regional district said its emergency operations centre was activated to Level 2, with another team dedicated to full-time river monitoring.

“Until we are closer to the weekend, when river and weather forecast models enter the high confidence range, we won’t know which freshet scenario we are going to see, except to say that we are nowhere near what we saw in 2018,” said Mark Stephens, emergency operations centre director for the regional district.

Freshet is defined as the flood of a river from heavy rain or melted snow or a rush of freshwater flowing into the sea.

“We could see one- to two-year return for river levels, and as always with high water could see some erosion,” Stephens said.

According to the regional district, updates from the B.C. River Forecast Centre show that snowmelt will accelerate in early May as temperatures reach the 20s, while possible unsettled weather could bring rainfall at higher elevations.

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The regional district said those two items will be the determining factors in whether rivers in the Boundary region reach typical freshet levels with minimal flooding.

“Not only are we all dealing with an ongoing pandemic, communities are still dealing with the impacts of the 2018 floods. We want to be sure that residents can prepare for whatever this freshet brings, while maintaining physical distance from others.”

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The regional district, which serves approximately 31,000 residents, says it has stockpiled 250,000 sandbags and will announce locations if there’s a need to sandbag.

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It also said tiger-dams and floodline bins will be pre-positioned in Grand Forks. It says the dams and bins are a precautionary measure triggered through the new regional flood response plan, and ensures flood protection for major public infrastructure is available if required.

The regional district noted that staff are measuring water levels in the Kettle and Granby river system and in Christina, Boundary and Trail creeks daily. What district staff have seen to date matches weekly data from the BC River Forecast Centre.

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“We are watching the weather and snowmelt for the Kettle closely,” said Stephens.

“We have definitely seen that transition into the melt season with mid-elevation and even high-elevation snow starting to come down. The West Kettle is currently at a one year return level and is forecasted to rise and fall throughout the next few days.”