WINNIPEG – The Manitoba government is considering a controlled release of the Assiniboine River, which will flood 225 sq. kilometres of land southeast of Portage la Prairie.
Provincial transportation minister Steve Ashton said cutting a hole in the river’s dike to release 2,000 to 6,000 cubic feet per second of water is necessary because the province is fighting a one in 300 year flood.
“This is unprecedented,” he said yesterday during a press briefing in Winnipeg.
“If you were to use the barometer of the Red River … you have to go back to the 1820s to get a Red River (flood) comparison.… We’re looking at flows in the range of half of Niagara Falls.”
The province is prepared to release water out of the Assiniboine River near Hoop and Holler Bend, 20 km southeast of Portage.
Ashton said the controlled release option is preferable to an uncontrolled breach of the river dikes because that would flood 500 sq. km of land and 850 homes between Portage and Headingly.
Purposely flooding 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.”
Ashton said government officials won’t make a decision until noon today because they are holding out hope for an alternate plan.
Manitoba Water Stewardship executive director Steve Topping said the province could pump more water through the Portage Diversion, which takes water from the Assiniboine River to Lake Manitoba and has a capacity of 25,000 cubic feet per second.
Ashton said the province may not have to release water at Hoop and Holler if the diversion channel can handle 34,000 cubic feet per second and if forecasted rain holds off.
“It (the controlled release) would be the last resort,” he said. “(But) it’s more likely than not that it will be used.”
