Pumping required to reduce high water levels along White Lake Road

PENTICTON – Water levels are rising and surface water continues to pool in the White Lake and Willowbrook areas.

On White Lake Road, 21 kilometres south of Penticton, the regional district is working with the owners of St. Andrews Golf Course to reduce high water levels at Prather Lake.

With no natural outlet for the lake, which is already at high water levels, the province recently ordered a reduction in the water levels on the lake. Water from Prather Lake will be pumped into Kearns Creek, which has been flooding downstream in Willowbrook and is already under a state of local emergency.

The regional district reported yesterday, April 4, the controlled pumping of Prather Lake will offer protection to all homes in the watershed by preventing uncontrolled or emergency pumping later this spring, after the snowpack melts.

A section of Carr Crescent in Willowbrook is also being removed to allow water to move freely downstream.

At higher elevations in the region, reports of Twin Lake pumping water into Park Rill Creek are unfounded.

Twin Lakes resident and Lower Nipit Improvement District administrator Coral Brown says she’s heard rumours that the flooding in Willowbrook is the result of pumping operations to reduce water levels in Twin Lakes.

“The Twin Lake pump was removed in 2017 for repairs and the pump is still not in the lake,” she says.

She says residents in the Twin Lake area expect to see flooding this year.

“So far, the lakes are still frozen and there is no surface water running from the high country of Horn Creek,” she says.

An up-to-date map locating sand and sandbag locations can be found at this regional district website.


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Steve Arstad

I have been looking for news in the South Okanagan - SImilkameen for 20 years, having turned a part time lifelong interest into a full time profession. After five years publishing a local newsletter, several years working as a correspondent / stringer for several local newspapers and seven years as editor of a Similkameen weekly newspaper, I joined iNFOnews.ca in 2014. My goal in the news industry has always been to deliver accurate and interesting articles about local people and places. My interest in the profession is life long - from my earliest memories of grade school, I have enjoyed writing.
As an airborne geophysical surveyor I travelled extensively around the globe, conducting helicopter borne mineral surveys.
I also spent several years at an Okanagan Falls based lumber mill, producing glued-wood laminated products.
As a member of the Kaleden community, I have been involved in the Kaleden Volunteer Fire Department for 22 years, and also serve as a trustee on the Kaleden Irrigation District board.
I am currently married to my wife Judy, of 26 years. We are empty-nesters who enjoy living in Kaleden with our Welsh Terrier, Angus, and cat, Tibbs.
Our two daughters, Meagan and Hayley, reside in Richmond and Victoria, respectively.

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