Ice remains thick on Sydenham River

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The ice along the Sydenham River remains thick, after the region got less rain then what was anticipated.

The St. Clair Region Conservation Authority issued a statement on Wednesday, warning of rising water levels and deteriorating ice.

“We did not receive a lot of rain as per the forecast Thursday and into Friday,” said Girish Sankar, water resources engineer. “We were expected to receive up to between 25 and 35 mm, but we ended up receiving just around 10 to 15 mm. With the cooler temperatures that have returned back to the system, we are not seeing much of a run-off because of the snow melt and the rain. Conditions seems to be very stable in the watershed. The ice conditions are stable and solid.

Solid would be an understatement as well.

Sankar said he hasn’t seen ice this thick on the Sydenham in his time with the Conservation Authority.

“We did our ice monitoring last week and the ice is solid, anywhere between 15 and 20 inches of ice in the river right now, right from Wallaceburg to Dresden along the east branch or from Wallaceburg to Wilkesport along the north branch,” he said. 20 inches of ice, I have not seen that in the last five years with the Authority and others say they haven’t seen this for 20 or 25 years.”

Looking forward to this week (Feb 24-Mar. 1), Sankar said he expects the conditions to remain stable.

“The cooler temperatures have returned back so there is not much rain forecast and not much snow melt is going to happen within the next week or so,” he said. “Conditions could change, especially since we are nearing spring. We are going to be monitoring the conditions and we are going to be updating regularly as we are approaching the spring melt.”

With the thick ice in the river this year and spring around the corner, Sankar said flooding events could be possible.

“If we see a few more events like we had Thursday and Friday, then we could avoid a flooding situation, but if there is going to be one big event, then we are certainly looking as ice jamming and flooding situations this year,” he said.

If any ice jamming occurs, Sankar said there are two things the Conservation Authority can do to alleviate the problem.

“There is the McKeough Floodway, we can operate the dam if we get those type of conditions,” he said. “The other thing we do is interact with the Municipality of Chatham-Kent and see if there is any icebreaker services we could use, if the forecast calls for a lot of rain. If we predict that there is going to be an ice jamming situation, then we would be tapping into those services and we would make sure that the ice jam is broken right as it forms.”

For more information, check out the Conservation Authority website here: http://www.scrca.on.ca/

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