LAKE OF THE WOODS – As of last week, the Lake of the Woods declined by 12 centimetres according to the Lake of the Wood Control Board Secretariat.
Even with the widespread precipitation briefly stalling the decline, the water levels in the are still expected to drop five to eight centimetres over the next few weeks.
Lac Seul is currently in the 80th percentile level which LotWS said is normal for this time of the year. The main body of water is expected to drop over the next weeks by five to eight centimetres as well.
Now that the water level in the region is stabilizing and showing considerable signs of decline, the LotWCB is moving away from its emergency regulatory procedures. This means the control board will no longer be providing routine weekly updates to the public.
“With the return to normal summer levels for Lac Seul and a continued drop of Lake of the Woods expected this month, the Board has resumed normal operations according to an adopted Regulation Strategy,” stated the LotWCB.
The LotWCB will continue to update municipalities, First Nations, Specific Interest Groups and Resource Agencies; however, these reports won’t be every week.
According to LotWCB, each group has received an “overview of a draft strategy to operate Lake of the Woods and Lac Seul dams through to the end of October under a range of possible flow conditions.”
“A key focus of the strategy is maintaining maximum outflow from Lake of the Woods until the lake level returns to the legislated operating range, followed by a balanced drawdown of the lake and the Winnipeg River in order to reach normal water levels ahead of freeze-up,” said the LotWCB.
The adopted Regulation Strategy is available at http://lwcb.ca/noticeboard/regulation/.
