Rocks along a stretch of Cedar Creek Park have taken on a rusty tinge, and City of Kelowna staff are doing tests to determine what’s going on.
Tom Wilson, from the City of Kelowna, said water treatment staff have seen it before and believe the colour was caused naturally from the extra low water level this year.
READ MORE: HIGH FLOOD RISK
They’ve taken samples for tests and the results will be made available in a few days, said Wilson.
The reason for this year’s low lake level is last year’s flooding.
“We’ve been dropping the lake by half-a-centimetre per day,” Shaun Reimer, section head for public safety and protection with the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations.
“What we’ve been doing is really trying to hit those target levels. We’ve been manipulating the flow to continue to ensure that happens.”
Currently, Okanagan Lake is 40 centimetres lower than this time last year, Reimer said.
At the same time, the snowpack is at record levels.
“The Okanagan is at 152 per cent. It’s the highest of any basing alongside the Similkameen,” said Jonathan Boyd, River Forecast Centre hydrologist.
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