The water being released from the Rafferty and Alameda Dam reservoirs has been reduced to a trickle.
On January 12, a Saskatchewan Watershed Authority spokesman said the rates of release at both dams has been cut back to just a half cubic metre (0.5) per second at both Alameda and Rafferty.
"They have reduced the pace based on forecasts and monitoring. The two reservoirs have already pretty well reached their levels for Februrary 1," said Clinton Molde when speaking to The Mercury from the Watershed's field office in Weyburn.
"They're both just slightly below the February requirements," he said, adding that if the area receives any amount of significant snowfall, the forecast for releasing water later may change, but at present, the total amount of water already released to date and the volume currently being released is well ahead of the requirements for the first part of February and there are still a couple of weeks remaining in January where adjustments can be made.
Earlier in the year, the release rates at the two dam sites were between two and five cubic metres per second but with a moderate winter so far, coupled with the fact there has been no significant snowfall, the authority has been cutting back the release rates and is still in accordance with the international agreement shared with the downstream users in the United States.
Molde added that he had not heard of any ongoing problems regarding dam structural integrity following some minor remedial work after last summer's floods.
He said that spring runoff predictions won't be issued until sometime in early March.
