(Williams Lake) A “grateful” emergency management minister says the threat of catastrophic flooding along the Chilcotin and Fraser Rivers in British Columbia appears to have been averted after a massive lake spilled over a landslide.
Bowinn Ma said high waters, similar to spring runoff conditions, are being observed downstream along the Chilcotin and Fraser Rivers, but risks still remain due to the powerful current carrying trees and other debris, while eating away large swaths of the landscape.
“The risk of a worst-case scenario has diminished considerably, but we are not out of danger yet,” she insisted at a press conference on Tuesday. “I am extremely grateful that the worst-case scenario has not occurred.”
Last week’s landslide in Farwell Canyon, located about 22 kilometres south of Williams Lake, dammed the Chilcotin River and created a lake about 11 kilometres long behind the slide.
Water began flowing over and through the debris Monday, carving a channel about 50 feet through the jam, before widening with water flows increasing by the hour.
Water is expected to flow past the towns of Lytton and Boston Bar in the Fraser Canyon Tuesday night, reaching Hope, about 150 kilometres east of Vancouver, early Wednesday, Ms.me My.
“We’re not out of the woods yet,” she warned. “We still have a few hours for the water to drain behind the ice jam and then we have to take the time to assess how the landscape will evolve after this event.”
The minister ordered citizens to stay away from the landslide and potential flood areas due to the risk of slopes failing and being swept away by the water.
Impacts on salmon
Indigenous leader Joe Alphonse, whose nation depends on the river’s salmon, said Tuesday he was “relieved” that the ice jam created by the landslide had broken and “we hope and pray that it doesn’t cause too much damage to property and people downstream from us.”
At least one heritage cabin was swept away from the banks of the raging Chilcotin River when water began flowing over the landslide area Monday, said Alphonse, president of the Tsilhqot’in National Government Tribe.
“You can’t manipulate Mother Nature,” he warned at a news conference. “We have to continue to monitor the river. There’s a lot of work to be done here.”
Mr. Alphonse is concerned that the slide and damage caused by the rushing waters could impact critical salmon migrations heading to spawning grounds up the Chilcotin River and Chilko Lake.
He said the valuable sockeye run is expected to arrive in the Chilcotin River in the coming days, while some chinook have passed through the slide area but others are still in the river below the slide.
“We need wild livestock,” Alphonse reiterated. “We’ve always eaten wild salmon, wild moose and wild deer. We depend on wild salmon. When you’re living on the poverty line, you can’t afford to buy food at a health food store.”
He called on the Department of Fisheries to introduce “automatic” restrictions on sport and commercial fishing to protect salmon in the Chilcotin River and Chilko Lake.
“We don’t want to hear excuses for the Chilko Lake race. We want leadership and solutions,” Alphonse said.
The Department of Fisheries said in a statement Tuesday that based on historical timing, it believes the majority of adult chinook salmon returning to the Chilcotin River this season migrated past the slide site before last week’s landslide.
The ministry also said the majority of adult sockeye salmon are expected to arrive at the confluence of the Chilcotin and Fraser Rivers around the third week of August, with coho salmon arriving later this fall.
Hope for the best and prepare for the worst
Mr. Alphonse lamented that the government has not done enough to work with the Tsilhqot’in to monitor the landslide situation, choosing instead to “scare everybody. We don’t need them on our territory as far as I’m concerned. Go around, we’ll tell them to stay out.”
Mme Ma stressed that the province’s approach to the landslide involved hoping for the best and preparing for the worst.
“What we did is what British Columbians expected of us,” she said.
“We mobilized the resources we needed to gain a thorough understanding of the landslide situation, modeled scenarios and prepared scenarios ranging from worst case to optimistic or more optimistic scenarios.”