Water level watchdogs not concerned with heavy rain

PENTICTON — Penticton should not worry about flooding concerns despite three days of nearly constant rainfall.

The Okanagan Valley has been drenched this past week with various communities experiencing different levels of rising water.

Dale Kronebusch said there are no concerns for this area. The emergency services supervisor of the Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen said Okanagan Lake's water level is controlled through dam-like structures by the provincial government. This level of control is good to have as "you don't know how much rain is going to fall."

He said the lake has already crested from the spring melting of snow topped hills. The level was already on the way down but the rain has slowed it somewhat.

Kronebusch said Mission Creek and Trout Creek are another variable. The two rivers feed a lot of water into Okanagan Lake.

Mission Creek is "rising a little bit" Dave Campbell said. The head of the B.C. River Forecast Centre added the creek was hit with a lot of rain. His office collects data from the river from federal government sources, measuring devices and provincial organizations.

The creek is pushing about 50 cubic metres of water a second but that's not a concern. He'd be worried if the creek was moving 60 to 75 cubic metres of water per second.

To contact a reporter for this story, email Shannon Quesnel at squesnel@infotelnews.ca, call 250-488-3065 or tweet @shannonquesnel1