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Yukon Energy Restricting Water Flow to Mayo Lake

Friday, 23 August 2019 16:30

Yukon Energy is restricting water to Mayo Lake to help support fish habitat downstream (Photo courtesy of Yukon Energy)

Yukon Energy is reducing water flow to Mayo Lake to help support fish habitat and spawning downstream.

Yukon Energy has been granted approval by the Yukon Water Board to reduce water flow to Mayo Lake.

Yukon Energy submitted an application to the board on August 1st over the matter, which aims to support fish habitat along the Mayo and Stewart Rivers downstream.

Yukon Energy President Andrew Hall said action had to be taken by his corporation after the lake conditions were changing rapidly.

"The Mayo area didn't receive a lot of summer rain unlike other parts of the Yukon which got good amounts of summer rain. What that means is that at the moment, the water level in the lake was actually dropping. We were worried about it dropping too low to the point that if we didn't do anything, the flow in the river would eventually drop to very low levels."

Hall says the water restrictions will likely last until the end of September, when most of the salmon spawning period comes to the end.

Hall says there's not ample evidence linking  the dry conditions around the lake to climate change.

"We have water history here dating back thirty years in terms of what is going on in the watershed. In our view, this is just a dry year.  We had similar years back in the 1990's for example. This kind of situation doesn't happen very frequently. We view this as a weather event and we don't think there is compelling evidence here to link it to climate change." 

According to Hall, the approval of the plan means Yukon Energy must submit a fish monitoring plan and low-water level response plan to the board by the end of next year. He says the plan will be worked in collaboration with the Na-Cho Nyak Dun First Nation and the Village of Mayo.

As of August 20th, the lake was almost two meters lower than its historical water level average of 665 meters.  

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