Mix of art and science helps manage flows on Madawaska River

Robert Fisher
Staff Reporter

BARRY’S BAY – A mix of science and art help water managers at Ontario Power Generation (OPG) manage flows on the Madawaska River, to reduce risks of flooding and keeping lights on through electricity generation.

OPG hosted an information session last Wednesday night at the legion in Barry’s Bay to talk with residents about their operations and how they manage water flows in the Ottawa River watershed, which includes the Madawaska River. The session was rescheduled from earlier in the winter due to weather.

While the generator is tied into the latest environmental forecasting information and can draw data from multiple forecasting sources, there is still some measure of experience and estimation involved in deciding how much water flows along the river. They have agreements in place to provide enough water for certain activities, such as whitewater for canoeing and kayaking and sometimes nature forces their hand by how much or how little precipitation falls.

OPG controls and monitors water flow through seven dams along the river. Two are flow control dams and five are generating stations. The dams include two reservoirs which, essentially, act like large bathtubs where water can be stored to manage flow in times of low precipitation. Conversely, the tubs can be filled, to a point, in times of heavy precipitation or a heavy spring thaw to help reduce flood risk downriver.

The dam at Bark Lake is the largest reservoir operated by OPG on the Madawaska. It acts as the main control for water flow all the way to Arnprior. OPG will manage water levels in the river and the reservoir seasonally to help control flow and be ready for the spring thaw. The reservoir at Bark Lake can hold 360 million cubic metres of water, which is roughly equivalent to filling the Rogers Centre (Skydome) 225 times.

Managing flows remains a manual process with large logs being either taken out or put in to control how much water flows over the dam and how much the reservoir is permitted to fill. Generating dams; the Bark Lake dam is not a generating station, also have spillways which can divert water around the dam as an additional flow control. For example, if the flow through the generating station turbines is 150 cubic metres per second and OPG needs to allow 250 cubic metres to flow, it can open the spillway to allow the additional water through and downriver.

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