By Rick Pusiak
There is a potential for some interesting times as far as flooding goes as we enter the annual spring runoff.
That was the conclusion Wednesday at a meeting of various agencies and groups at Tom Davies Square.
Ontario Power Generation, Domtar, the Nickel District Conservation Authority (NDCA) and the Ministry of Natural Resources as well as other parties had representatives at the session.
NDCA community relations co-ordinator, Paul Sajatovic, said weather conditions will play a major role in what eventually occurs.
"Snow packs are certainly fairly high, the water content is probably elevated in terms of the types of weather conditions we had last weekend," said Sajatovic.
"Certainly all the rain we had last fall is going to keep things very wet and may have an impact on what eventually happens with the total run-off. But that's really an unknown factor until we start to get into the true runoff period."
Last week NDCA staff were out in the bush doing what's called a snow course survey.
Snow banks were measured at three separate locations including areas of the Vermilion water shed. It was determined the amount of snow and water content is at least where we were last year at this time.
There was about an average 35-40 inches of snow on the ground with a water content of 7.25 to eight inches.
Staff will be out again this Monday.
"I think what we're going to find is after the weekend with all of the rain we had...it's probably gone into the snow pack and there may be a little less snow and the water content might be a little higher," said the community relations co-ordinator.
"But essentially (the rain) is sitting probably in the snow pack which can be a benefit or a disadvantage depending on just how quickly the runoff begins. But we're still probably very close to the levels we had last year in terms of average snow pack and water content, which was slightly above average for this time of year."
Sajatovic said all agencies have made preparations for possible problems and now it comes down to weather conditions and the type of run-off that will occur.
"Municipalities are in to their (ditch clearing) program, everybody's pretty well got their lakes down and their reservoirs down...in terms of measures such as sand bag availability, those kind of things, we've pretty much determined what's here, what can be accessed at short notice," said Sajatovic.
"So I think for the most part everybody has done as much as they can and now it's wait for the runoff and the type of conditions that might materialize."
Last week some Coniston residents expressed concern with what was perceived to be a lack of flood patrols.
NDCA was in communication with the appropriate municipal staff in that area and they were made aware of the worries.
It doesn't look like there will be much melting today (Sunday). The Environment Canada forecast calls for sunny conditions with a low of -15 C and a high of -3 C.
