All eyes will be on the Sheep River this week as Environment Canada is predicting significant rainfall in the region through Saturday.
“We’ve been notified that commencing this Wednesday this region can expect between 60 to 100 millimeters of rain between Wednesday and Saturday,” said Municipal manage Rick Quail.
If the forecast comes true he said it’s expected the rain could bring river levels back up to where they were when the river flooded in May.
The rain will fall at a time when river levels are already high. The Sheep River was put on a high stream flow advisory over the weekend and it was dropped on Monday afternoon.
Quail said Town personnel have emergency equipment on stand by and will be ready to respond if the Sheep River once again rises.
As well, snow pack levels at the Sheep River headwaters are still above average and at the upper levels of the historic normal range.
Deputy fire chief Jim Smith said this spring’s cooler temperatures have slowed the melt, but warmer temperatures could bring higher water levels in the river if all the snow starts to melt at once.
“If it starts to get really warm for a long period of time you could start to see that snow pack coming down,” he said.
The warning comes at a time when the Town has completed reopened pathways in Sheep River Park, but it may be a while before Okotoks cyclists, runners and walkers will get to use the Heritage Pathway on the north side of the river.
Okotoks’ community services manager Susan Laurin said all pathways in Sheep River Park and the south side of the river are open, including the Woodhaven stairs, but much of the Heritage Pathway, which stretches between the two bridges along the north side of the river, is still closed.
Laurin said repairs have been made to damage on trails on the south side of the river to bring them to a standard safe for public use, but she said they still need to be paved. This work will be done in July.
“Everything on the south side of the river is now open,” she said.
It’s a much different story for the paths on the north side of the Sheep River.
The river washed out two sections of the path and the Town is still determining how it will proceed with repairs. One section of path was washed out east of the Okotoks Public Library about a 100 meters inside the trees near South Railway Street. The second section is further east on the path, closer to the rail bridge.
In both cases, the Town is deciding whether it will rebuild the trail in the same spot or at a different location further away from the river.
The Town has not set a timeline for when repairs will be completed.
All but one sports field in the river valley were reopened soon after the flood.
Spoiler Field, located by the water treatment plant, was closed due to damage to the playing surface. All physical structures at the baseball diamond were undamaged, but a layer of silt was left behind on the grass. The Town had to wait until conditions dried enough to remove the silt and reopen the field and this work will proceed when weather conditions allow.
Laurin said the final repair bill for the flood has not been calculated. This will depend on what option is chosen for repairs to the Heritage Pathway, she added.
