Lake Cowichan Weir - Lake Cowichan, BC
N 48° 49.390 W 124° 03.663
10U E 422118 N 5408341
A dam on the Cowichan River
Waymark Code: WM38ZR
Location: British Columbia, Canada
Date Posted: 02/27/2008
Views: 11
Well not the usual grand looking structure that most people envision when you think of a dam, this weir still has an important function to help maintain the constant flow of the river during the summer. Built in 1957, this structure has 2 parts and uses an existing island in the middle of the river. On one side stands the control gate that has 4 sections that are raised as the flow starts do decrease after the spring run off to keep an extra 3 feet of water in the Lake. (About 62 million cubic meters) This structure also has a fish ladder to maintain fish movement from the Lake to the River. On the other side of the Island is the weir and the Boat lock that allows boats to travel from the river to the lake and back again when the weir is in operation from May to September.
A flow of 7 cubic meters of water is the target flow during the summer and the weir allows this rate to be maintained most years. Before the weir was operational, during the summer the flow would drop as low as 1 cubic meter a minute on a very dry summer. A virtual trickle.
Information for this waypoint was taken from an information sign at the site along with the Catalyst web site.