It’s been a big question at Stump Lake this year: can water be drained from the lake to alleviate flood concerns? The Thompson-Nicola Regional District says a report that answers that question will come out by the end of this week.
Director of community services Ron Storie says the report is the result of months of consulting with residents and stakeholders at the lake, located between Kamloops and Merritt next to Highway 5A.
“Being such a complex file, the time it’s taken for staff to really come up with decisions that will work for everybody out there as best we can, there certainly was a lot of time doing that,” Storie says.
“I think it will answer a number of questions, and it’s really the feasibility as to whether water can be passed down or not. That’s really the issue. At the end of the day, will it answer questions? Yes. Will it be answers they want to hear, and we want to hear? I don’t know. Information is important and that’s what we were asked to do and that’s what we are providing people with.”
A study of the lake’s water level was brought on after some residents were flooded for a third straight year, which Storie says has brought on an extraordinary response this year.
“There was probably the most sand I’ve ever seen go anywhere, in my 10 years with the TNRD, out at Stump Lake. So sand and bags.”
Flooded-out property owners at Stump Lake have been begging for water to be released into Stumplake Creek. But there have been concerns raised about potential impacts downstream, for several privately-owned ranches, for the Upper Nicola Band, the Lower Nicola Indian Band and the City of Merritt.
Storie says the report cost $65,000, and the provincial government covered $20,000 of that cost.
He explains that the provincial government, namely the Ministry of Transportation and the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development have been crucial in making sure this study has gotten done. He says it’s come with input from concerned property owners, Indigenous communities and other stakeholders.
