CAMPBELL RIVER, B.C. – May set a record in Campbell River for the lowest precipitation on record in the last 37 years.
That’s according to BC Hydro’s Stephen Watson. He noted that the region had an average snowpack, but that melted about a month earlier than normal.
“We are in conservation mode, we actually dropped the Campbell River flow down last week from 100 cubic metres per second down to 70, and we look to drop the river flow further down to around 30 cubic metres on July 1st,” he said.
He explained that a lot of their water flow plans are timed within the fish life cycle.
“We think these younger salmon are at a stage where the river flows can be dropped for rearing purposes, as well as the upper reservoirs, particularly upper Campbell reservoir in Buttle Lake,” he said.
“It is a little bit lower than normal, but this is typically the time of year when it will increase with the snow melt, but given a lot of the snow is gone, the reservoirs will be about a metre or two lower than what people are used to, that go up in that area.”
Watson said residents should be aware that given the dry conditions, the reservoirs would be a little bit lower than usual for recreational purposes.
