Despite what was done in recent years, no water is being dumped into Park Rill Creek from other flood zones this year.
The regional district’s Emergency Operations Centre has placed 64 properties in the Twin Lakes area near Cawston under evacuation alert due to the potential of flooding.
In 2017, the Lower Nipit Irrigation District at Twin Lakes was allowed by the Province of B.C. to pump water into Park Rill Creek to lower the lake levels.
However, this year Park Rill Creek is already flooding, compromising dams and roads and damaging downstream properties, and 17 properties in the Sportsmen’s Bowl Road area remain on evacuation order as a result.
The regional district said that at this time there is no water being pumped from the Twin Lakes area into Park Rill Creek.
The Twin Lakes area experienced significant flooding in 2017. This year is expected to be significantly worse. Currently, the lake level is rising as much as six inches per day, and could see an increase of an additional six feet.
Lake levels are expected to rise quickly in the next week with warm temperatures melting the local snowpack, which is more than 150 per cent higher than normal, according to the regional district.
