Northern Dams Struggle To Keep Pace

Northern Dams Struggle To Keep Pace

Tuesday, September 06, 2005 at 14:43

SaskPower admits most of the record water flow that’s gone through northern hydro stations this summer has not been converted into electricity.

Utility spokesman Larry Christie says SaskPower simply doesn’t have the storage capacity to handle the volume of water that has passed through its dams.

Christie says during the height of the flooding in Cumberland House, only 20 per cent of the water flow at the EB Campbell dam was converted into electricity.

Christie says the same is holding true near Sandy Bay, where the Island Falls dam is also spilling much more than it is actually using.

Christie says the dams are built to handle the average rainfall over the last 30 years.

He adds increasing the capacity at the dams is not really an option, because of the expense for such a rare event and because of the damage it would do to the local environment.