SASKATOON -- The Water Security Agency (WSA) has changed the emergency classification of the La Ronge Dam to a Potential Dam Failure.
“The dam is not in imminent danger of failing but the water level is encroaching on the minimum recommended freeboard,” the WSA said in a news release.
“When this happens, it changes the dam safety emergency classification. Freeboard is the distance between the water level and the top of the structure. The Water Security Agency already has mitigation efforts in place with large sandbags on the top of the dam to raise the level of the freeboard a further 0.5 metres.”
It was previously classified as a Hazardous Condition.
The change is a result of the significant amount of rainfall in the area recently, including accumulations ranging from five to 40 millimetres from July 25 to 26.
The lake level is forecasted to increase by 10 centimetres to 365 m.
With the current water levels downstream of the dam, a failure would not result in a large wave of water going downstream but rather an increased outflow from the lake into the already flooding Churchill River system, the WSA says.
It would also affect being able to manage the lake level as it declines.
The WSA believes the biggest impact downstream of a failure would be more water travelling downstream to the Churchill River system, which could increase flood peaks.
