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Sask. Flood Watchers Gauging Threat of Rising Salt Water Lakes

Posted on: Tuesday, 24 April 2007, 21:00 CDT

By TIM COOK

REGINA (CP) - Officials were trying to gauge the environmental threat of two flood-swollen brackish lakes Tuesday, while the owners of homes and cabins along fresher waters battled feverishly to save their buildings.

Deadmoose Lake and Houghton Lake in eastern Saskatchewan are both saline and are expected to reach record-high water levels this spring. Doug Johnson of the Saskatchewan Watershed Authority said there is a chance the salty water could spill into nearby Lenore Lake and hurt freshwater sport fishing there.

"They are relatively internalized or saline lakes. If they spill into Lake Lenore there may be issues," he said during what have become daily updates on flooding in the province.

"But we are working on that to determine if there are impacts and if there is any mitigation that can be done."

Survey crews and water specialists are evaluating the situation and should have more information later in the week, Johnson said.

"There is a fishery in Lake Lenore, a fresh water fishery. The sport fish on Lake Lenore become impacted by the water quality."

Also on Tuesday, the Rural Municipality of Wolverine near Humboldt added itself to a list of communities that have declared states of emergency because of the spring floods, bringing the total to 18.

That status gives local officials more powers to restrict access to roads and to take action to preserve roads and bridges.

Duane McKay with the Public Safety Department said there were some roads washed out in the Wolverine area, but he didn't know how many.

Elsewhere in the province, the situation remained dire in the swamped resort communities around Fishing Lake, about 200 kilometres east of Saskatoon.

About 300 homes or cabins are threatened and officials have said that half have already been affected. Lake levels are not expected to peak for another three weeks.

Complicating matters for Carolyn Prosko and her neighbours trying to hold back the water from their homes and cabins was a pending loss of power.

Prosko said she was told her power would be turned off Tuesday evening and she is worried about how that will hurt people using electric pumps to keep their homes dry.

"The only thing we have left is our power. That's all we've got left. We're toast," she said in a telephone interview.

"We have muskrats swimming down the back where we used to drive our vehicle."

The news remained good, however, for 632 people who fled their homes on the Red Earth First Nation, about 300 kilometres northeast of Saskatoon last week.

Richard Kent of the Prince Albert Grand Council said plans to have the evacuees return Wednesday were still on track as flood waters continued to recede on the reserve.

Source: Canadian Press

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