Western Quebec municipality wants inquiry into Ottawa River management

The mayor of Mansfield-et-Pontefract, Que., says residents want to know whether Ottawa River reservoirs and dams are being used properly to protect communities from flooding.

Mayor Gilles Dionne saidpeople upstream in Mattawa, Ont., and Deux-Rivieres, Ont.,are sending in photos of low water levelsas residents in his town near Lac Coulonge, east of Pembroke,see rising waters and brace for them to potentially peak higher than last week.

"We can't just blame Mother Nature," he said. "To me, it's poor judgment or poor management."

Dionne said 232 people there have had to leave their homes.

Firefighters are still filling sandbags to help residents exhausted from a long battle against the high water.

"It's very panicked for sure. They're tired, they're fed up," Dionne said.

He said his council recently voted unanimously to ask for an inquiry into the river's management.

System overwhelmed

People charged with managing the dams and reservoirs in the Ottawa River basin said water levels may appear low upstream, but it's part oftheir work and has reduced the impact of flooding.

"It's not a question of being able to manage the water. It's the sheer volume that is essentially overwhelming the system," said Michael Sarich with the Ottawa River Regulation Planning Board.

Sarich said people in Deux-Rivieresmay be seeing low water levels because at certain "run of river dams," water levels are lowered during the spring thaw to have the capacity to stop serious backups.

"There's a natural constriction in the river:think ofa funnel. Water comes and it just can't get through [quickly]," Sarich said.

"[Without lower levels in places] it would back waterup all the way up to Mattawa which is now currently looking at reaching a historic high."

The Town of Mattawais under a state of emergency, with the board'smonitoring station there registering a 1.26 metre rise in the river from May 2 to May 9.

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Mike Dubeau, director general of the Western Quebec School Board, says some schools in Pontiac are offering support for students affected by the flooding, including safe spaces, meals or extra clothing.

Hugo Sansoucy, head of planning and production for Hydro-Qubec, said dams can only manage about 40 per cent of the water flowing through the Ottawa River.

Sansoucy said reservoirs are emptied in advance of the spring thaw so their capacity can be used to mitigate flooding.

Hydro-Qubec does not see the economic opportunity to build more dams or reservoirs in the area, he said.