The District of Lake Country has been awarded a grant from the Province of BC’s Community Emergency Preparedness Fund – Disaster Risk Reduction – Climate Adaptation funding stream in the amount of $4,550,000 to reconstruct the Beaver Lake dam and intake structure.
The Community Emergency Preparedness Fund is intended to enhance the resilience of local governments, First Nations, and communities in responding to emergencies and to reduce risks from future disasters due to natural hazards and climate-related risks.
Design work has been completed and construction of this project will be completed in two phases. Phase one construction began in September 2024.
Phase one will include lowering Beaver Lake to facilitate the construction of a coffer dam to isolate the existing dam and intake structure, along with the installation of a siphon system to ensure environmental and community flow requirements are met. Phase two will begin in 2025 and includes decommissioning and removal of the existing dam and intake tower structure, construction of a new inlet structure, and reconstruction of the earthfill dam. This project will also include the removal of a rock obstruction that will allow the District access to its full licensed storage, provisions to raise the dam following the necessary approval process to increase storage, automation of water releases to promote water conservation, and advanced alerting to provide notice of dam breaches due to floods.
Engineering reviews conducted from 2018 to 2022 confirmed that the Beaver Lake intake structure and water channel under the dam has reached the end of its useful life. The Provincial Dam Safety Office ranks Beaver Lake Dam as a ‘very high consequence’ dam, meaning it has the potential to cause significant impact to human life, the environment, and properties in an extreme inflow event.
“The present-day dam and intake tower were constructed in the 1960’s. The infrastructure has reached the end of its useful life, and we are now able to improve safety, water conservation and drought and flood resiliency into the future.” says Kiel Wilkie project manager.
“This project and the funding received is a huge win for our community. It helps secure the District's water supply needs for generations to come,” says Mayor Ireland. “Lake Country is one of, if not the most, water resilient community in the Okanagan and this funding will help us further that goal. It will provide more water supply stability to our agricultural sector as well as our residents.”
For further information on the Community Emergency Preparedness Fund visit:
https://www.ubcm.ca/cepf
For information on climate preparedness and adaptation visit:https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/environment/climate-change/adaptation
District of Lake Country communications@lakecountry.bc.ca