The Manitoba government is putting off a decision to intentionally flood farmland and property near Portage la Prairie. The province had scheduled a “controlled release” of the Assiniboine River, which would flood 225 sq. km (87 sq. miles) of land southeast of Portage, for May 11 at noon. But the province will now make that decision Thursday morning, said Premier Greg Selinger, during a tour of flood affected areas with Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
“It’s a very hard decision,” Selinger said, as he addressed a media scrum, 200 metres from the Assiniboine River in Brandon. The province will monitor the situation, “minute by minute”, to determine if the release of water is necessary or not, he added.
Cutting a hole in the river’s dike and releasing 2,000 to 6,000 cubic feet per second of water may be necessary, said Manitoba transportation minister Steve Ashton, because the province is fighting a one in 300 year flood of the Assiniboine River.
“This is unprecedented. If you were to use the barometer of the Red River… you have to go back to the 1820’s to get a Red River (flood) comparison,” Ashton said, at a press briefing May 10 in Winnipeg. “We’re looking at flows in the range of half of Niagara Falls.”
The province is prepared to release water out of the Assiniboine, near Hoop and Holler Bend, Man., 20 km southeast of Portage. The controlled release option is preferable to an “uncontrolled breach” of Assiniboine River dikes, because that scenario would flood 500 sq. km of land and 850 homes between Portage and Headingly, Ashton said.
The province’s plan to purposely flood land in the rural municipalities of Portage la Prairie and Cartier, will destroy a large chunk of Manitoba’s vegetable production in 2011, said Ed Connery, who operates one of the largest vegetable and berry farms in the province.
“Asparagus, broccoli, all the green onion for the province and one-third of the carrots could be done in,” Connery told CBC radio. “There will be a major fallout for many families relying on the jobs connected with those crops.”
Government officials will wait till the last minute to make a decision on the controlled release, Ashton said, because they are holding out hope for an alternate plan.
Steve Topping, Manitoba Water Stewardship executive director, said the province could pump more water through the Portage Diversion, which takes water from the Assiniboine River to Lake Manitoba. If the Diversion channel, which has a capacity of 25,000 cfs, can handle 34,000 cfs and if forecasted rain holds off, the province may not have to release water at Hoop and Holler, Ashton said.
“It (the controlled release) would be the last resort,” he added. (But) it’s more likely than not, that it will be used.”
