For Wallaceburg residents, there has been a lot of questioning by residents when water levels get high about why the McKeough Dam, located in St. Clair Township, hasn’t been closed to lower the rising waters and protect property.
At tonight’s Chatham-Kent council meeting, Girish Sankar, Director of Water Resources with the St. Clair Region Conservation Authority is scheduled to make a presentation about what the operating criteria of McKeough Dam is during high water events.
The control gates remain open under normal flow conditions, but when Wallaceburg is threatened by flooding, they are closed and divert the flow down the diversion channel. The floodway controls about 37% of the East and North Sydenham River drainage basins upstream of Wallaceburg.
The dam, which became operational in 1984, is the largest flood diversion project in Ontario.