Canadian Reservoirs Slightly Higher Than Desired - KXNet - Bismarck/Minot/Williston/Dickinson

Canadian Reservoirs Slightly Higher Than Desired

As we told you yesterday -- small releases from the Lake Darling Dam will continue over the next few months to make sure the level of the reservoir stays below the prescribed level of 1596.

An international agreement mandates that level not be exceeded on February 1st.

The dam will be releasing water all winter equal to the amount of water coming into Darling from Canada...

Reservoirs in Canada are by no means full -- or even close to it actually.

In fact both the Rafferty and Alameda reservoirs in Saskatchewan are within a foot-or-so of where they should be by early next year...hence the small increase in releases there to get to that level.

(Tom Pabian - Upper Souris Wildlife Refuge) "The have the February 1st deadline as well and these flows that we are seeing increase this week, they should continue through January and that is contingent on what Mother Nature brings us."

Pabian says should Mother Nature deliver a heavy dose of winter weather this year -- with lots of moisture, changes can be made to the releases to handle the increased

(Tom Pabian - Upper Souris Wildlife Refuge) "If we are going to have a heavy snow year and a lot of moisture in the basin you may see an increase in flows to prepare the reservoirs for the spring runoff. If it an open dry winter, come February 1, we may end up closing the gates and try and save what moisture is out there."

Should higher releases come, ice conditions on the Mouse River would be even more dangerous, so Pabian reminds everyone to be cautious on the ice this winter season.