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Flood created serious challenge for dam

Operators of the Dickson Dam knew they had a potentially huge problem leading up to Alberta’s worst flood in 90 years. The weather didn’t look good in June 2005.
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Ken Campbell of Red Deer tries his luck just downstream of the Dickson Dam on the Red Deer River on Thursday this week.


Operators of the Dickson Dam knew they had a potentially huge problem leading up to Alberta’s worst flood in 90 years. The weather didn’t look good in June 2005.

“We had a couple days notice — we were told we were going to get twice as much rain,” said Rick Friedl, regional manager with Water Management Operations of Alberta Environment, on Friday in Red Deer.

Friedl spoke at the first anniversary breakfast of the Red Deer River Watershed Alliance’s Ambassador Program. He gave the group all the ins and outs about the dam and what happened during the 2005 floods.

This was the worst flooding to occur in the region since 1915.

Dickson Dam has been around for about 30 years and is about 20 km west of Innisfail. The dam created the reservoir that’s called Gleniffer Lake.

When there is so much water, a decision is made to control the outflows.

“At some point, we decide we’re going to hold the rest of the water and use the storage in the reservoir,” said Friedl. “We started drawing the reservoir down to create more storage. The more storage we have, the less water we have to pass downstream.”

They ended up using every drop of storage in the reservoir during the 2005 flood.

The flood created some serious challenges.

Staff was busy running around checking gauging stations while the river flows were very high and the rain poured.

“They were trying to give us the best information they can,” said Friedl.

Damages occurred downstream. However, with enough lead time, people in Drumheller were able to build dykes to prevent heavy damage.

“In cases like 2005, the flood attenuation was actually extremely good,” said Friedl.

Sometime Albertans wonder why the decision isn’t made to fill the reservoir sooner, particularly when there is snow melt.

However, that can have an impact on flood attenuation, Friedl said.

Friedl said later that no changes were implemented as a result of what happened in 2005.

“Operational procedures have been in place for 25 years, so we’ve been through a series of floods,” he said. “So the process is similar all the time. The magnitude doesn’t matter a lot. I think you’d see more changes with the municipalities and responders downstream.”

Public awareness about the Red Deer River Basin has been growing.

“When I started working at the dam, the level of understanding and the amount of discussion around water/basin management was quite low,” said Friedl. “We now get good feedback and people are well informed about how this infrastructure runs.”

The Red Deer River Watershed Alliance is a multi-sector, non-profit organization created in September 2005. In the past, it has recognized more than 70 Watershed Ambassadors.

On Friday, Ross Martyn of Leslieville received a certificate for his work as team lead at Dickson Dam. He has since retired.

Hal and Linda Carson of Red Deer were honoured for their cleanup efforts along the Red Deer River.

ltester@www.reddeeradvocate.com