Testalinden Creek is a

watercourse A stream is a continuous body of water, body of surface water Current (stream), flowing within the stream bed, bed and bank (geography), banks of a channel (geography), channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a strea ...

that flows east into the

Okanagan River The Okanogan River (known as the Okanagan River in Canada) is a tributary of the Columbia River, approximately 115 mi (185 km) long, in southern British Columbia and north central Washington. It drains a scenic plateau region called t ...

, south of the

Okanagan The Okanagan ( ), also called the Okanagan Valley and sometimes the Okanagan Country, is a region in the Canadian province of British Columbia defined by the basin of Okanagan Lake and the Canadian portion of the Okanagan River. It is part of ...

town of

Oliver, British Columbia Oliver is a town near the south end of the Okanagan Valley in the southern British Columbia Interior, interior of British Columbia, Canada, with a population of nearly 5,000 people. It is located along the Okanagan River by Tuc-el-nuit Lake betwe ...

. The Testalinden Dam was at the

headwaters The headwater of a river or stream is the geographical point of its beginning, specifically where surface runoff water begins to accumulate into a flowing channel of water. A river or stream into which one or many tributary rivers or streams flo ...

of this creek prior to the dam's failure in June 2010.

Disasters

The dam at Testalinden Lake located near the summit of Mt. Kobau burst on June 13, 2010 at around 2:15pm creating a debris torrent landslide that descended about 1500m to the valley below, destroying 5 houses, damaging several farms and blocking

British Columbia Highway 97 Highway 97 is a major highway in the Canadian province of British Columbia. It is the longest continuously numbered route in the province, running and is the only route that runs the entire north–south length of British Columbia, connecting ...

. The overall damages were estimated to be over CAD$20 million. The dam was constructed in 1927 and was in poor maintenance at the time of failure. Two days before the breach, a hiker noted that Testalinden Lake was full and the dam was overtopping. After a surge of snowmelt, the dam failed, releasing approximately 20,000 m³ of water into the Okanagan Valley, which led to a debris flow with a volume of more than 200,000 m³. Traffic was detoured around the debris on the highway for several days as the highway was repaired. Additionally, two of Oliver's water mains were affected by the slide, resulting in 10 homes and 750 acres of farmland losing access to water. Testalinden Creek was later rehabilitated by returning it to its former channel, which was heavily armoured with rock. On August 14, 2015, lightning caused a large wildfire in the Testalinden Creek area. Strong winds quickly spread the fire, which burned 5,202 hectares over the course of a month.

References

External links

* Rivers of British Columbia {{BritishColumbia-river-stub