Saint John Water dredging lake in anticipation of more droughts to come

Saint John, N.B., is bolstering its water sources as it prepares for another hot summer.

Dredging work is underway this winter around lakes supplying drinking water in Saint John, N.B., following a summer of drought conditions which saw watershed levels plummet.

The city issued a public advisory in September for residents to voluntarily reduce how much water they were using at home. At that time, the Loch Lomond Watershed, which provides most of the city’s water supply, had lost close to half a metre of its water level in just a month.

“We were hoping we wouldn’t have to impose any severe water restrictions for the general population,” says Dean Price, manager of source water protection at Saint John Water. “We started to get some rain in the fall and lakes started to rebound.”

Price says the work this winter will focus on dredging accumulated sand in parts of the channel connecting First Lake and Robertson Lake.

“That channel is shallower than Robertson Lake itself, so that creates a pinch point or bottleneck,” says Price.

The dredging work is expected to happen in five locations. A gravel pad has also been built near First Lake for heavy machinery.

“We’re trying to position ourselves so that we have a backup plan that is readily available to us whether we need to do more dredging, or if we had to do emergency pumping,” says Price.

September’s emergency plan included the construction of a dam structure to pump water from First Lake to Robertson Lake.

“A more reasonable approach is to deepen the channel to avoid severe water restrictions if we have another drought,” says Price.

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