Floodwatch

[cllew]

Maybe the river taxi can actually operate for a full season if the water levels are normal in the spring.

Probably won't see any of the large river boats on the river again this year unless the Paddlewheel owner finds a buyer soon.

[Cyro]

Annual rite of Spring, River Walk closed from Osborne to Main.

Haven't walked by the Assiniboine this week but the 10cm of snow in the next 24hrs should bump the level with added Rain to the East..

[bomberjet]

The Red was noticeably higher today than my last bus trip on Friday.

[Cyro]

We talk about the Walkways every year, didn't one of our politicians talk about control of the floodway and a study? Selinger maybe? It's such a loss for several months every year.

[biguc]

I think that might have been one of Mcfadyen's miracles from 2011. Boy is that guy looking good these days.

[Cyro]

Thx, have to agree on Hugh, He would be nice right about this time.

[Cyro]

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/loc...372435081.html

Over the noon hour on Thursday, the Red River in Winnipeg stood at 15.4 feet above normal winter ice level at the James Avenue monitoring station. The unofficial mark for a minor flood -- where the City of Winnipeg traditionally begins taking some flood-mitigation measures -- is 15 feet James.

Bummer..Minor sounds better than moderate flooding though..

[biguc]

It's a snowy winter and our recent warm weather has me dreaming of an early thaw with, therefore, an early flood.

Someone managed to get a hold of our premier by telegraph or Costa Rican pigeon post and he's preemptively blaming Saskatchewan for the coming flood.
http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/canada/m...ding-1.3942970

He also says he has a plan for dealing with floods, which probably involves chicken bones, but that unless Saskatchewan plays along it won't work.

Anyway, Labroco's recent post about the wasted potential of the Alexander Docks got me thinking about the wasted potential of Winnipeg's rivers in general thanks to the scourge of recent summer floods. And that made me wonder why, if all this water is coming from Saskatchewan, the Shellmouth reservoir suddenly stopped working.

[bomberjet]

Carrier Pigeon.

What needs to happen, and is slowly gaining traction, is water storage. Farmers drain their land ASAP to protect their crops. Which is understandable. They'll fill in potholes, which store water. Need water storage to prevent everything hitting the river at the same time. The Province has cut huge drains across the landscape over time, exacerbating the issue.

Next, if the Province wants to pump water into Lake Manitoba, they need to drain it at the same rate they're putting it in. So the outlet channels at the north end, which are being worked on, need to provide that capacity.

Strengthen the dikes, permanently, on the Assiniboine to whatever level they need to be. And we'd be doing pretty good. Instead of the year over year frantic sandbagging efforts.

In terms of water levels in the City, it's a crying shame nobody pays attention to this. Control the dam river so the water levels will ALWAYS stay at the same level or below. ALWAYS. None of this BS about the floodway operation causing flooding in Grande Pointe or wherever, fix it. Adjust your environmental license, do whatever. I was on the skating trail last weekend. Is it ever sweet. But as some on here have mentioned, and our favourite architect, all new developments shun the river.

Largest cost here are the outlets of Lake Manitoba. Spend a couple hundred million and get it done. Instead of the constant emergency measures. Spend the dough upfront and solve the issue for good. Just like the Red River Floodway. Saves billions upon billions.

[Stormer]

I don't think we have had a ton of snow yet in Sask component of the Assiniboine/Qu'Appelle/Souris basin, except in the Souris, especially around Estevan. Estevan set an all time record for snowfall in December. North Dakota was also hit. The bigger issue may be massive rains in October that in some areas really saturated the ground setting up a big runoff if we get moderate snow and a quick melt. The Moose Jaw River basin was particularly wet in the fall. This is the major tributary of the Qu'Appelle.

[Riverman]

Nail on head BJ. Correct, widespread agricultural drainage is the cause of our increased flooding problems. The only way to mitigate this is to return the landscape to where it was. Believe it or not, organizations like Ducks Unlimited have had success in convincing farmers (using government money) to undo drainage projects.

But there is only one event that will convince farmers to make this happen on a large scale. A severe drought.

[biguc]

I was hoping to hear your take, Riverman. That's what I've read before, but you've provided some useful detail. But I still don't see how this is Saskatchewan's problem when we have the Shellmouth dam blocking water from Sask. It's also funny to think that on Pallister's apocryphal childhood farm they likely did just the kind of land drainage that's become our problem.

Originally Posted by bomberjet

Carrier Pigeon.

What needs to happen, and is slowly gaining traction, is water storage. Farmers drain their land ASAP to protect their crops. Which is understandable. They'll fill in potholes, which store water. Need water storage to prevent everything hitting the river at the same time. The Province has cut huge drains across the landscape over time, exacerbating the issue.

Next, if the Province wants to pump water into Lake Manitoba, they need to drain it at the same rate they're putting it in. So the outlet channels at the north end, which are being worked on, need to provide that capacity.

Strengthen the dikes, permanently, on the Assiniboine to whatever level they need to be. And we'd be doing pretty good. Instead of the year over year frantic sandbagging efforts.

In terms of water levels in the City, it's a crying shame nobody pays attention to this. Control the dam river so the water levels will ALWAYS stay at the same level or below. ALWAYS. None of this BS about the floodway operation causing flooding in Grande Pointe or wherever, fix it. Adjust your environmental license, do whatever. I was on the skating trail last weekend. Is it ever sweet. But as some on here have mentioned, and our favourite architect, all new developments shun the river.

Largest cost here are the outlets of Lake Manitoba. Spend a couple hundred million and get it done. Instead of the constant emergency measures. Spend the dough upfront and solve the issue for good. Just like the Red River Floodway. Saves billions upon billions.

Just like this province to keep the band-aids coming instead of suturing a hemorrhage. I dream of this city being oriented towards it's rivers, connected by ice trails in winter and marinas and riverwalks in summer.

[Riverman]

Shellmouth resevoir can only store so much water an then it is basically a just a straight through river. ND, Sask and MB are all part of the problem. We drain, we flood. There is only the physical barrier of gravity - the land is too flat for the water to get out of its own way. As BJ said the only way to mitigate this is to reverse drainage projects.

[Riverman]

Originally Posted by biguc

Just like this province to keep the band-aids coming instead of suturing a hemorrhage. I dream of this city being oriented towards it's rivers, connected by ice trails in winter and marinas and riverwalks in summer.

There is really little that can be done. I started boating on the river before most drainage projects began. There were seven active marinas then! There were even boating poker runs for the Variety Club, organized by Pat Riordan. It was a wonderful time.

[Tacheguy]

there have been a few proposals over the years to compensate farmers for storing water. one in particular sticks in my mind because I had the misfortune of suggesting it for consideration by the Mulroney government back in the day.

Ducks Unlimited was willing to put up a lot of money, tens of millions as I recall, to provide incentives to farmers to store water and basically improve duck hunting in places like Texas. it was real money, and I thought it might get political traction because grain prices were low at the time and farmers were suffering. to this day I don't know why it was dismissed quickly..

[Riverman]

It has been accepted in some circles. Farmers are good at math.

[Tacheguy]

yeah I wasn't clear. this particular proposal was contingent on matching funds from senior levels of government. I guess the pols didn't want to be seen to be reducing productive farm acreages. plus environmental issues weren't front and center to the same degree as they are today.

[Stormer]

First runoff forecast just issued. I think the is underestimating things. Sure most of the snow melted in January but a lot of the moisture is still in the ground.

[biguc]

Good to see this thread back. I was thinking of reviving it myself in order to summon Riverman. Thanks, Stormer.

Anyway, over in the Highrise Construction section of the general forum, there's a thread on a big project in Chicago, along the river. Check it out, it's pretty cool:

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=221826

This picture in particular caught my eye.


from Crains and Chicago Architecture blog, apparently.


What I noticed is the raised boardwalk over an apparently natural riverbank.

The natural riverbank made me roll my eyes. Here's what that section of river looks like now.
https://www.google.ca/maps/@41.86534...2!8i6656?hl=en

The Chicago River, like many American Rivers, has had the (debatable) benefit of the Army Corps of Engineers going to town on it, shoring up the banks with concrete. At some point, they also reversed the flow of the river so it would pollute the Mississippi instead of Lake Michigan. The entire river is a masterpiece of engineering so, even though Chicago is built on a swamp, Winnipeg-style flooding is not an issue. As a result, Chicago has been able to develop an excellent river walk.

But that raised boardwalk got me thinking. Some time ago, I asked if it would be possible to sink soldier piles along the edge of the Assiniboine and raise the river walk there. Riverman shot down the idea because soil conditions are apparently unsuitable.

So, my question for you, Riverman, is what about this elevated boardwalk. Chicago and Winnipeg are both swampy cities. But building a raised wooden walkway over the river walk seems like a cheap and feasible solution to it flooding. It's just a deck!

Even better, why not top the river walk with a moored, floating deck, so when it does flood, people can still walk over it?

[Riverman]

Totally possible but it would have to be removed, hauled away and stored every fall. Just like the Forks docks, and we know what happened to them.