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Whether there's flooding or drought, the decisions made by Shaun Reimer at the Okanagan Lake Dam are felt from Vernon to Osoyoos.
So he doesn't mind the "Gatekeeper of Okanagan Lake" title.
"I guess there's some validity to that," he said, "since there are gates where our outflows come out."
It's Reimer who controls how low to allow the lake to get ahead of the spring freshet, and how much to let flow downstream into the Penticton River Channel and the Okanagan River system.
"It all starts with the snow and the snowpack," explained Reimer. "Provincially, we monitor the snowpack."
From there, the BC River Forecast Centre takes that data to come up with models to predict how much flow we should expect into Okanagan Lake as all that snow melts.
"And that allows me to try to think of how much water, on a weekly basis even, that I want flowing out of Okanagan Lake.
And there are a lot of interests that have to be considered.
"To try to balance the needs for water supply, flood control, fisheries, etc."
After that, all it takes is an unusual string of wet or dry weather to spoil the plan.
And that's when Reimer gets blamed.
"I do," he said. But he has to shrug it off and carry on.
"I try to filter some of this through the lens of these people are getting impacted and they're speaking from a voice that's based on frustration."
Snowpack measurements have been modernized and the modelling can be improved, but there is never certainty.
"All I can do is try to make science-based decisions," Reimer explained, "but in this very inexact science that relies so heavily on the weather that, again, it's difficult."
He recalls one year when there was flooding around Okanagan Lake and downstream on the Okanagan River and he was receiving simultaneous complaints that he was releasing too much, or not enough water from the lake depending on which side of the dam the complainants happened to live.
"Yes, but again, it comes back to their frustrations on how they're being impacted," he said. "Flood control, though, is our number one priority."
And Reimer said the science is improving.
"The BC River Forecast Centre has put a lot of effort into both improving the existing models and trying to create new models to do it."
The current snowpack is higher than average in the Okanagan.
"As of March 1st We were at 120 percent of normal," he said.
"It does not guarantee any kind of flooding. A high snowpack just increases the probability of flooding."
Still, it sets a strategy in motion.
"In anticipation, we have been drawing down Okanagan Lake and I think we are in a good place."
The lake is expected to rise about a metre over the next few months ahead of the full-pool target in June.
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