BC Hydro will redirect river flows in the Puntledge River as it undertakes semi-annual maintenance of the generating station.
The public is advised to be cautious as river flows in the Nymph Falls and Stotan Falls area of the river will more than triple on Sept. 18 and will be held at that level or higher through Oct. 12.
BC Hydro will shut down the generating station to undertake maintenance work and inspections, including the five-kilometre woodstave and steel pipeline.
Flows out of the station will stop and instead flow over the Puntledge Diversion Dam further upstream and into the river. River flows downstream of the generation station will remain unchanged.
BC Hydro will increase flows in the Stotan Falls area in the evening on Sept. 18 from 5.7 cubic metres per second to about 16 m3/s. Sixteen m3/s is the minimum fish flow requirement in the lower river to keep the riverbed fully covered and provide migration and spawning conditions. BC Hydro will adjust operations between 16 m3/s to 20 m3/s through Oct. 12, subject to weather conditions.
Water inflows into the Comox Lake Reservoir are currently low, in the four m3/s range, as a result of the dry weather. The reservoir has been steadily declining since the end of July and is now at 133.1 metres, or about the middle elevation range.
It will continue to decline in the near term and that will allow BC Hydro to be ready for flood risk management capabilities as we head into the fall rains.
— BC Hydro