At the Nov. 28 Village of 亚洲天堂 Lake meeting, Rio Tinto B.C. Works updated council about the dam safety inspections conducted this year.

Quinten Beach, Rio Tinto B.C. Works鈥� Nechako operations superintendent said they conducted a comprehensive Dam Safety Review at the Skins Lake Spillway.

Beach said that this audit takes place every seven years, separate from the weekly checkups conducted throughout the year.

Several dam safety tests were carried out, including a dam breach study, dam instability, seismic probable maximum precipitation, and flood problem tests.

All tests aim to assess dam infrastructure strength to withstand floods from floodgate breaches.

Rio Tinto BC Works did these tests to check their infrastructure鈥檚 strength for withstanding potential flooding impacts from the Nechako Reservoir鈥檚 downstream water pressure.

Beach said that they will be able to conduct more inspections when the report arrives at the end of 2023, although, he feels great about their dam infrastructure maintenance at the spillway.

Beach also said they inspected the concrete plugs and upgraded the rocks placed on the dams (rip-rap) and vegetation control programs around Bear Lake dams near Ursa Minor.

Henry Wiebe, 亚洲天堂 Lake鈥檚 mayor, raised concerns about flooding due to atmospheric rivers and inquired about the reservoir鈥檚 water level.

Beach replied that the water level of Nechako Reservoir, also known as Ootsa Lake Reservoir, is currently at 2792.14 ft., historically lower than the average for this time of the year.

Beach said that with the current water level, the reservoir can hold extra water from atmospheric rivers, and there鈥檚 an actual need for them. He added that they would need a lot of rain and snow, above average, to bring the reservoir back to its average level for this time of the year and into the spring.

Beach attributed this to the level three record drought conditions of B.C. The Nechako Reservoir has the standard capacity to store water with a maximum level of 2800 ft.

Beach stated that with the extreme weather events, their team would monitor the reservoir daily to make future decisions with their hydrological modeled data in dealing with this drought.

鈥淥ur hydrological model focuses on how much water is getting into the system. It subdivides the Nechako Watershed into different areas. For each area, the model considers the weather (temperature and precipitation), then simulates rain or snow, evaporation, snowmelt, infiltration to soil and water table, and run-off to neighboring areas. This data is then aggregated to calculate total inflows into the reservoir,鈥� spokesperson from Rio Tinto B.C. Works said.

A spokesperson from Rio Tinto B.C. Works stated that the company has invested approximately $10 million towards dam safety-related projects overall this year.