Municipalities keep watch on water levels

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This article was published 10/05/2021 (1962 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There’s a growing concern among some of Westman’s municipal leaders the taps will run dry.

Last week, the City of Morden announced water restrictions in order to retain enough water in their Lake Minnewasta reservoir to sustain the community’s needs.

The reservoir was 6.1 feet below its full supply level — its lowest since 1983.

Although municipalities farther west aren’t reporting as dire a situation, they’re keeping their eyes trained on water levels.

RM of Wallace-Woodworth CEO Garth Mitchell said unlike the City of Morden, their water source is underground via bored wells.

Although this allows them greater reliability, the water table is lower than normal.

“We’ve definitely got concerns about the drought issues, but we haven’t taken any measures … yet,” he said, adding that monitoring is ongoing to determine what course of action, if any, will need to be undertaken.

The RM of Pipestone links into the neighbouring RM of Wallace-Woodworth’s water supply, so is in the same boat.

Conditions are dry, Reeve Archie McPherson said — “No doubt about it, very dry.”

They’ve discussed their options in the event water levels run dangerously low, and although limiting water use is one of them, they’re not there yet.

A farmer by trade, McPherson said he’s hoping for precipitation on a number of fronts.

“A lot of dugouts are going to maybe be dug deeper,” he said, adding the winter snowmelt resulted in virtually no runoff, which they rely on to fill dugouts.

“Everybody, whether you’re living in town or the country, knows we’re in desperate need of moisture.”

Much of the Municipality of Brenda-Waskada draws water through the Southwest Regional Water Co-op, which supplies area communities with water drawn from groundwater wells from the Oak Lake Aquifer near Melita.

“It seems to be holding up, according to our last meeting anyway,” RM of Brenda-Waskada Head of Council David Vanmackelbergh said, adding he’d be more comfortable if he saw some precipitation.

“If it stays like this all summer, there is going to be some fairly major issues I would imagine, but at the moment we’re not desperate yet.”

From an agricultural perspective, he said there’s enough moisture to get cereals in the ground, but that livestock producers face the greatest potential hardship, since dugouts are looking pretty dry.

In general, he said a little rain would go a long way.

“No major concerns at the moment, but it’s definitely top of mind.”

» tclarke@brandonsun.com, with files from the Winnipeg Free Press

» Twitter: @TylerClarkeMB