More water from Gardiner Dam still won’t keep Prairie Lily afloat

The Water Security Agency (WSA) increased the amount of water that’s released from the Gardiner Dam, but for at least one person, it’s a drop in the bucket.

Starting last Friday, the agency began letting out 90 cubic meters per second instead of 65 from the dam’s reservoir, Lake Diefenbaker, to help flush out years of built-up silt in the South Saskatchewan River.

But Prairie Lily captain and co-owner Mike Steckhan said in practice it only amounts to “a trickle.”

“The river is up, I would suggest, about two inches, which it’s not even hardly noticeable. It won’t even cover all the sandbars, let alone get rid of them,” he said.

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According to Steckhan, releasing more water hasn’t led to an increase in its speed either.

This exacerbates the existing problem, as fast water would carry the silt away, whereas slow-moving water lets the silt fall and accumulate over time.

“It’s just blatantly obvious after that announcement, they simply have no plan to remove the silt in this city,” Steckhan said about the WSA.

Prairie Lily captain and co-owner Mike Steckhan said if the Water Safety Agency had a plan to flush out the silt from the South Saskatchewan River, then, “they wouldn’t be trickling it out.” (650 CKOM file photo)

Silt remains a growing problem

For Steckhan, the issue could be resolved by letting water levels build over time, waiting until there’s enough water to do a larger-scale release, ensuring a proper flush.

Doing it incrementally allows the amount of silt to grow while simultaneously reducing how much water is available in the long term.

Combined, Steckhan said that even more water will eventually be needed to get rid of the increasing silt.

It’s already gotten bad enough that, after 14 years of operations, he’s had to cancel the Prairie Lily’s riverboat cruises this summer.

Saskatoon isn’t the only community affected, though, according to Steckhan.

“All of the silt we’re sitting on here in Saskatoon has to get washed down to the Cumberland House delta because they need it,” he said, adding how the Cumberland House Cree Nation uses silt to “maintain their lifestyle.”

Without that strong flush downstream, Steckhan said, Saskatoon will continue to accumulate the silt others depend upon.

But, while the flush is the solution, getting there would require the provincial government to step in and instruct the WSA to open the dam.

“Our best hope would be that somebody drops the anvil, frankly, on the provincial government, and we have a flush next spring,” Steckhan said.

He’s not optimistic that it’ll happen, and until it does, he said the situation is, “only going to get worse.”

— With files from 650 CKOM’s Mia Holowaychuk