Kristen Villebrun and Wendy Bush hoped they wouldn't have to pray for Chedoke Creek, but four years after they first raised alarm about the water's condition, they were part of an Indigenous full moon ceremony to do just that. About 50 people showed up near Princess Point on the dark and frigid Monday evening for the monthly ceremony, which was particularly special as it focused on Chedoke Creek. The body of water that runs into Cootes Paradise had about 24 billion litres of sewage and storm water runoff leak into it due to a gate being left open.
The Yukon government has issued a high water advisory for the Southern Lakes including Bennett, Tagish and Marsh Lake. A Wednesday advisory said the water levels are "well above average for this time of year." The levels are above the five-year return period water level, which refers to the expected frequency that a level or flow could be exceeded based on statistical analysis of historic records.
Water levels in Yukon are approaching a high-water mark, according to a Yukon government hydrologist. "We're going to start seeing those water levels decline within the next couple of weeks and we don't expect them to exceed the previous highs," said Anthony Bier. But there's a caveat: water bodies, namely those in the Southern Lakes region and Lake Laberge, are still hovering around levels gauged in 2007, a year that caused widespread damages in the territory.
The water levels in Yukon's Southern Lakes are slowly going down — at least for now. In a flood update issued over the weekend, the territorial government said Bennett, Tagish, and Marsh lakes, as well as Lake Laberge, had all gone down between 0.9 and 1.5 centimetres in 24 hours. All four remain well above 2007 levels, in particular Lake Laberge, which is currently 32.1 centimetres higher.
Yukoners wondering just how high water levels could get this summer should start looking to the skies. Though flood warnings remain in place for the Southern Lakes, Lake Laberge, and the Yukon River at Carmacks, Kat Hallett, a spokesperson for the government of Yukon, said one source of rising water appears to be running out. "What we've noted over the last few days is that rates of rise are decreasing a little bit," she told host Elyn Jones on CBC Radio's Yukon Morning on Tuesday.
Some property owners along South McClintock Road in Yukon have cleared out as Marsh Lake continues to rise. "It's up fairly high and, you know, it's a west wind so the waves pound those sandbags," said John Small, a Whitehorse resident who owns a recreational property on South McClintock Road. Small and some of his neighbours say they were told by emergency officials to vacate their Marsh Lake properties on Sunday.
As water levels in Lake Laberge hit a historic high, the Yukon government is issuing three new flood watches — adding to the flood warning already out for the Southern Lakes region. In the Southern Lakes area, boil water advisories have also been issued for residents of Army Beach and South McClintock with wells or underground water storage tanks as a "precautionary measure."
