Lake Wahtopanah
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Lake Wahtopanah, also known as Rivers Reservoir, is a
reservoir A reservoir (; ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam, usually built to water storage, store fresh water, often doubling for hydroelectric power generation. Reservoirs are created by controlling a watercourse that drains an existing body of wa ...
on the
Little Saskatchewan River The Little Saskatchewan River is a river in western Manitoba. It originates in Riding Mountain National Park at Lake Audy and flows about south through the communities of Minnedosa and Rapid City. Its approximate length is 185 km. It jo ...
near the town of
Rivers, Manitoba Rivers is an unincorporated urban community in the Riverdale Municipality within the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Manitoba. It is located northwest of Brandon, Manitoba, Brandon, above sea level. It is within the We ...
. Its dam is the Rivers Dam. It is home to
Rivers Provincial Park Rivers Provincial Park is a provincial park in the Canadian province of Manitoba, designated by the Government of Manitoba in 1961. The park is in size and is considered to be a Class III protected area under the IUCN protected area management c ...
, located on the west shore of the lake. The lake's name is an alternate form of the Indigenous word ''watopapinah'' meaning 'canoe people'.


Details

The reservoir is about wide and long. Its deepest point is about .
Riparian A riparian zone or riparian area is the interface between land and a river or stream. In some regions, the terms riparian woodland, riparian forest, riparian buffer zone, riparian corridor, and riparian strip are used to characterize a ripar ...
flows are regulated by a square gated conduit. High flows pass over a wide concrete chute spillway. The reservoir stores about and covers an area of about . The drainage area is about and extends well into
Riding Mountain National Park Riding Mountain National Park is a national park in Manitoba, Canada. The park is located within Treaty 2 Territory and sits atop the Manitoba Escarpment. Consisting of a protected area of , the forested parkland stands in sharp contrast to the ...
. Rivers Dam supplements water supplies for
irrigation Irrigation (also referred to as watering of plants) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow crops, landscape plants, and lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,000 years and has bee ...
, as well as providing the water supply for the town of Rivers,
stock watering Watered stock is an asset with an artificially-inflation, inflated value. The term most commonly refers to a form of securities fraud in which a company issues stock to someone before receiving at least the par value in payment.Dodd, David L. ''Sto ...
, and recreation (such as fishing and canoeing). The most popular species caught in the lake are
northern pike The northern pike (''Esox lucius'') is a species of carnivorous fish of the genus ''Esox'' (pikes). They are commonly found in brackish water, moderately salty and fresh waters of the Northern Hemisphere (''i.e.'' holarctic in distribution). T ...
,
walleye The walleye (''Sander vitreus'', Synonym (taxonomy), synonym ''Stizostedion vitreum''), also called the walleyed pike, yellow pike, yellow pikeperch or yellow pickerel, is a freshwater perciform fish native to most of Canada and to the Northern ...
, and
yellow perch The yellow perch (''Perca flavescens''), commonly referred to as perch, striped perch, American perch or preacher is a freshwater perciform fish native to much of North America. The yellow perch was described in 1814 by Samuel Latham Mitchill fr ...
.


History

The dam was built by the
Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration The Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration (PFRA) was a branch under Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC), a department of the Federal Government of Canada. The Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration was established by an Act of Parliam ...
in 1960 to supplement water supplies for irrigation.


2020 flood

In late June and early July 2020, heavy rainfall caused a runoff event with record flooding on the
Little Saskatchewan River The Little Saskatchewan River is a river in western Manitoba. It originates in Riding Mountain National Park at Lake Audy and flows about south through the communities of Minnedosa and Rapid City. Its approximate length is 185 km. It jo ...
. The flow peaked at about 300 cubic metres per second (10,600
cubic feet per second The cubic foot (symbol ft3 or cu ft)
, .
is an Brandon, Manitoba, Brandon, Riverdale, and Whitehead. This caused the Manitoba government to lose confidence in the dam and to warn everyone down stream of the likelihood of dam failure and catastrophic flooding. Nearby municipalities declared states of emergency, and the city of Brandon put over 2,000 residents on evacuation notice. Approximately 83 people had to evacuate from their homes in the Rivers Dam flood zone area. Once the flood waters receded, the province was able to assess the dam, with interim repairs to the spillway being completed in February 2021. In July 2023, the Manitoba government announced that permanent rehabilitation work of the dam has begun.


See also

*
List of lakes of Manitoba This is an incomplete list of lakes of Manitoba, a province of Canada. Larger lake statistics The total area of a lake includes the area of islands. Lakes lying across provincial boundaries are listed in the province with the greater lake ar ...
*
List of dams and reservoirs in Canada A list is a set of discrete items of information collected and set forth in some format for utility, entertainment, or other purposes. A list may be memorialized in any number of ways, including existing only in the mind of the list-maker, but ...


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wahtopanah Lakes of Manitoba Reservoirs in Manitoba