Water levels hold in Lake Diefenbaker, S. Saskatchewan River

Despite dry conditions through much of central Saskatchewan, water levels have remained fairly steady in Lake Diefenbaker and the South Saskatchewan River.

“Flows for this time of year are actually near-normal,” Water Security Agency spokesman Patrick Boyle said.

He said a recent image of a boat stuck on a sandbar in a section of the South Saskatchewan River flowing through downtown Saskatoon wasn’t an indicator of low water levels.

“It’s a pretty dynamic thing what happens with the sand.  It moves around from year to year.  There is no predictability on those sand bars.  When we had high flow years they moved around quite a bit.”

And with the spring run-off still to come from the Rockies, Boyle said they’re keeping a close eye on that.

“Some snow in the top of the mountains is still coming,” said Boyle.  “As those accumulations kind of reach their peak, they’ll slowly start to melt and that makes its way towards us.”

As for Lake Diefenbaker, Boyle said levels are normal there as well.

“It’s about 552.5 metres above sea level, which is about normal for this time of year,”Boyle said.  “We’re going to be looking at holding the reservoir near that elevation through mid-May.  After that we’ll start to look at storing some additional water.”

Boyle says most areas in southern Saskatchewan are at near-normal to below-normal moisture levels.  He said conditions get drier as one moves further south of Saskatoon.