The Saskatchewan Water Security Agency has once again halted releases from Alameda Dam. The WSA released water from Alameda Dam for the first time on Feb. 10, but those were halted on March 1 because the reservoir was about two metres below its full supply level (FSL) at the time. But thanks to the two-day blizzard that pummelled southeast Saskatchewan on March 6 and 7, and the snow that accumulated, the WSA resumed water releases on March 17. They reached a peak of 15 m3/s a few days later. But they decided to halt the releases on March 24. Patrick Boyle with the WSA said that with spring runoff beginning for the tributaries to Lake Darling in the United States, the decision was made, in collaboration with American partner agencies, to terminate the outflow from Alameda. “We do not anticipate resuming an outflow at Alameda until the reservoir is near full supply,” Boyle said
in an email to the Mercury. Alameda’s depth was at 559.31 metres, and slowly rising, as of Monday morning. Its FSL is 562 metres. Boundary Dam was at 560.78 metres, as of Monday afternoon, which is nearly at the FSL of 560.80 metres. The water depth was starting to decline on Monday. Due to the depth at Boundary Dam, water is being diverted from Boundary Dam to Rafferty Dam. The diversions were at a peak level of 45 m3/s on Monday afternoon, but Boyle expects those would slowly start to taper off on Tuesday. The combination of melting snow and the diverted water has caused Rafferty Dam’s depth to be on the rise. As of Monday morning, it was at a depth of 549.66 metres, which is closing in on the FSL of 550.50 metres. The depth at Rafferty has increased by more than half a metre in the past two weeks. No water is currently being released from Rafferty Dam, and Boyle doesn’t expect any releases to occur until Rafferty is close to its FSL.
