Boating in the Okanagan should be back by early August

| July 13, 2017 in Kelowna

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With high lake levels on Okanagan Lake, the City of Kelowna and the Province are estimating that regular boating activity won't resume until early August.

The good news is that levels have been continually dropping about two centimetres each day, so as long as the rain holds off, regular boating might happen in a few weeks.

In the meantime, there are low wake boating zones to still get you out on the water.

"At this point, the message really still is you need to check CORD Emergency and see the boating map and make sure you're in areas that can have low wake or no wake.  That's quite important for people to still do at this point," said Laura Wilson, communications for the City of Kelowna.

In the last 24 hours, Okanagan Lake dropped two centimetres and is now sitting at 342.80 metres, which is still 30 centimetres above full pool.

The City and the Province are shooting for a target of 342.48 metres on Okanagan Lake in order to resume regular summer activities.

CORD Emergency has a map of where low wake or no wake boating is allowed on Okanagan Lake, from Vernon to Naramata.

The word full pool has been used a lot this season. According to Shaun Reimer, it's a strange term to associate with Okanagan Lake because full poolit's applied to reservoirs or dams that are used to store water for hydroelectricity or other purposes.

"Okanagan Lake is a reservoir because there's a dam on it and it's regulated, but we've never stored water for those other kinds of purposes but it is a reservoir so a lot of times you use that term," said Reimer section head for public safety and protection with Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resources.

However, he prefers to use the target number, 342.48 metres as an annual target.

"I always like to throw the word target in there - full pool target. Just because again, the idea that it's full...Many times we go over and we don't say that it's full. It's just if you're trying to hit a target, sometimes you go a little over, sometimes you go a little under. This year of course, we went way over."

Reimer added that usually the full pool target is hit in the third week of June, but this year it will hit sometime at the beginning of August.

For list of parks, beaches and boat launches that are open, visit the City of Kelowna's website.

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