By TERRY PUGH
Rising temperatures combined with widely-varying water flow levels have created extremely unstable ice conditions, so vehicles crossing at the Clarkboro Ferry site are running a huge risk, according to Warman Fire Chief Russ Austin.
“Driving on the ice over moving water is never safe,” said Austin. “We strongly advise people not to use that river crossing.
“It’s much safer to drive into Saskatoon and take the new bridge,” he added. “It only adds about ten minutes of driving time. I understand people want to save a little time by rolling the dice, but crossing the river on the ice is never worth the risk.”
It’s a warning that Austin has stated consistently over the winter, and he notes it’s even more critical as spring draws near.
Warman Fire Rescue (WFR) members are called out almost every year, usually in the late fall or early spring, to rescue people in vehicles that have broken through the ice at the Clarkboro crossing. Most of those calls are during the night when the river crossing is in almost total darkness, the river current is strong, and the ice is unstable or breaking apart.
“If we can go out and rescue someone, we will,” he said. “But there are occasions, and people don’t like to hear this, but there are times when there is open water and the flow rate reaches a critical point, that it’s unsafe for rescuers to go out on the ice. We’ll do everything we can to help, but people have to help themselves by making good decisions.”
The Water Security Agency (WSA) also strongly discourages motorists from driving onto the ice at the Clarkboro Ferry crossing.
In an e-mail to the Gazette earlier this winter, a WSA spokesperson stated:
“The WSA wants to make it clear that this is not an official or sanctioned ice or winter road, and it is not operated or maintained by the Ministry of Highways or any other Ministry. Ice conditions can vary widely, particularly on rivers. Flowing water beneath the ice can lead to uneven thickness, weak spots, cracks, and sudden changes in ice strength that are not visible from the surface. River ice is especially unpredictable, and ice conditions can change quickly due to flow variations and weather. We do not recommend using this crossing.”
The WSA regulates the outflow of water through the Gardiner Dam at Lake Diefenbaker. According to the WSA, increased outflows during winter are part of the normal operations of the dam to manage ice formation and reduce the risk of ice jams downstream.
Recently, there has been significant variation in outflows. The WSA website indicates the flow varied between 235 and 280 cubic meters per second over the course of the week of March 2-9.
Austin noted the risks of unstable ice are magnified on a river, where the water is moving under the ice and water levels vary every day.
“The nature of flowing water is it could be two feet one day and two inches the next day because of the current and constant changes of direction under the ice,” he stated.
Austin said those natural variations of water level are compounded by the Gardiner Dam upstream at Lake Diefenbaker. Outflows from the lake are controlled at the dam.
“It’s not unusual for the amount of water to increase or decrease in a short period of time,” said Austin.
“That can create a situation where there’s an air void under the ice, and the ice wouldn’t be thick enough to support a vehicle’s weight. There’s no way to predict from one day to the next what moving water will do to ice thickness in any given spot.”