WINNIPEG – Farmers in the floodplains around the upper and western Assiniboine River will likely be watching water on their fields drying up for another month.
“We expect it will be the end of the month before the flooding has really ended and probably into early June before the ground starts drying out,” said Rick Bowering, a river forecaster with the provincial department of natural resources.
Bowering said a kilometre-wide swath along more than 200 kilometres of the river from the Shellmouth Dam to Brandon is under water. There are record-high levels in the upper Assiniboine Valley, and other parts are very close to record highs.
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Checking out damage
Russell reeve Wayne Collins said he’s spent the last week traveling around flooded areas to check on bridges, culverts, roads and dikes.
He wouldn’t estimate how much damage has been done, but he said the flood is making life difficult for area farmers. He guessed that more than 5,000 acres of “real good farmland” in the Assiniboine Valley are under water.
“There’s a few guys there with cattle who are having some problem getting to them. There’s one fellow with four bulls on an island that you can’t get to other than with a canoe,” Collins said.
Russell-area farmers are criticizing the department for not opening the dam in January to let out some of the water stored in the reservoir. “They are more than angry,” Collins said, “They are bitter.
“At least if (natural resources) had opened it up then people would realize how much water there is, but when they had it shut, it’s pretty hard to swallow all this now.”
But Bowering said the dam is used to control water supply as much as it is used to control floods.
Bowering said the department did not know that there would be heavy snows and a quick melt in March.
“I think it’s important to note that even if we had operated it the way that they suggest, you wouldn’t notice any difference in the river,” Bowering said.
