By Sarah Stone

River level in PA expected to jump, some residents put on alert

Jun 26, 2013 | 1:30 PM

Water levels and water flows of the North Saskatchewan River are expected to jump dramatically starting Wednesday night.

The City of Prince Albert is warning the peak levels will hit Thursday with the North Saskatchewan River experiencing a water level rise of 4.6 metres.

A media conference was held at City Hall on Wednesday where city manager Robert Cotterill said the river could potentially get as high as the storm sewer system, so they are taking all precautions.

“We are going to be in a position that if we feel the water will reach the level of the outfalls we will then go in and sand the catch basins in the localized region where the water may back up, thus stopping any of the North Saskatchewan coming into the city, into the residential areas,” Cotterill said, adding they are looking closely at a storm sewer near 18th Avenue West and catch basins in the East Flat.

However, he said with the rainfall they’ll have to monitor the situation before sanding the catch basins.

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The city has also issued flood advisories to several homes near the river to give them a chance to prepare in case water does enter parts of their home. This will allow them to move items out of their basement or pack a bag.

“We have issued flood advisories to housing areas along the Shellbrook Road area, Riverside Drive, those houses that basically back onto the river. We don’t anticipate that we will have to ask the people to leave their homes, but if something happens throughout the day and we think that can change we wanted the people to be aware,” he said.

A few homes near the Little Red River Park may be affected as well, Cotterill warned.

“We are also advising some residents that have access to their homes around their park that they may have part of a day or day where they cannot get to their homes because they use a localize road system which is the entrance way to the park and we think that will be under water sometime tonight, tomorrow,” he said, adding they are informed now.

Despite these areas which may see some issues, Cotterill said the general public doesn’t need to be worrying about sandbagging their homes.

Little Red River Park flooding could last weeks

Unfortunately, the flooding situation that forced the closure of the park last Thursday may go on for weeks because of heavy rain creating high water levels at Anglin Lake.

Last night, the Little Red River Bridge was put under traffic restrictions after a large tree stump took out two wooden piles and Cotterill said the bridge will not reopen to full capacity until they’re fixed.

“We’re very concerned with what that impact will be on that side of the road, so we’ve gone from a four lane road to a two lane road. The rest of the structure is in very good condition, it’s been inspected from highway engineers,” he said, adding the bridge could be like that for some time.

To avoid more destruction like this, the city has removed any trees from around the water’s edge, so it doesn’t fall into the river and hit the bridge piles.

Water treatment plant prepared

Patrick Boyle with the Water Security Agency said North Battleford is already starting to see the peak flows and Prince Albert is soon behind.

“We’re expecting around 3,000 cubic metres per second,” said Boyle, adding typically flow for this time of year is 500.

“Prince Albert should probably see that arising and peak on Thursday.”

With this high influx of water rushing down the North Saskatchewan River, Cotterill said the water treatment plant is prepared and they will be monitoring this situation.

“We are monitoring the turbidity levels at the plant. We’ve got the plant storage capacity at the maximum level so if turbidity levels got to the point that we had concern for the plant we could shut if off for a couple of hours, use the storage, let the event go by and then get back to producing water,” Cotterill explained.

During the next three days the city is asking the public to stay away from the riverbanks, as they are unstable.

“We will still remind residents, please stay away from the river because it will be coming up closer to the trails. We would recommend you not use the trail system for the next couple of days until such time as the river levels drop.”

Do you have pictures of flooding in your area? Send them to news@panow.com or tweet @princealbertnow.

sstone@panow.com

On Twitter: @sarahstone84