A time period of three weeks to refill the lost water at Boulevard Lake.
Director of Engineering and Operations Kayla Dixon told the media Monday afternoon that as of 10:00 p.m. Sunday the water levels were sitting between 211.5 and 211.6 Metres Above Sea Level (MASL) but that all changed Monday morning when the call was made to city officials.
The levels had been dropped to 210.3 MASL, which is what it is usually set at during the winter time.
“We have determined that no city staff operated the gates (improperly),” “There was no fault that could be found to say that the gates somehow dropped automatically. The automatic process for operating the gates has not been put in place through our SCADA yet. There are twelve gates on the dam and eleven of them were lowered last night.”
SCADA refers to the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition.
The environmental impacts are also being assessed due to the lower water levels, with Dixon adding those results could be available sooner rather than later.
Dixon noted that the Thunder Bay Police Service (TBPS) as well as the Ministries of Environment, Conservation and Parks and Northern Development, Mines, Natural Resources and Forestry were all notified of the issue.
Any details on the lowering of the gates be phoned in to 625-2195 or email publicworks@thunderbay.ca
In a Facebook post Monday, the Splish Splash Water Park is aiming to re-open by Wednesday at the earliest.
With files from Kevin Jeffrey