Better managment needed for the weir at Cowichan Lake
It’s my feeling that had the weir been shut off at the beginning of March we wouldn’t have been put in the situation we were in.
I have pictures of our property over the winter and the lake was just as far up as it usually is each year. Had the weir been shut much earlier, we definitely would have found ourselves at a lower point than normal due to the lack of rainfall, but I don’t think it would have been down as low as it was.
In today’s age of special weather reading, the weir could have been shut much earlier and if there was a significant “wet” weather pattern coming in, then it could have been opened for a while to accomodate the rainfall. This didn’t happen though and we found ourselves with a big problem!
In saying this, I feel that raising the weir would not help anything if the water was just let out without any thought. It would just take a few more weeks to get back to the low level we’re at now. I’m not for or against raising the weir, I just think that better management is required. Because of the changing weather patterns, control of the weir should not have any mandated dates as to when to open and close them — simple logic should prevail, knowing when we’ll have rain systems coming in and when there aren’t any in sight.
My thoughts on the whole problem.
Orton Ker
Lake Cowichan