Reservoir Storage Investigation (Nicola and Coldwater Watersheds)

The Nicola Water Use Management Plan (WUMP) identified several overarching issues in the watershed including insufficient flow in drought years for both fish and agriculture and tension between recreational use and water storage. Since publication of the WUMP in 2010 the situation has worsened due to population growth, forest disturbance, and geomorphic changes related to the 2021 atmospheric river-induced flooding. Fish protection orders were issued in 2009 and 2015 in recognition of the potential for irreversible harm to fish. Although an FPPO has not been issued in the study area since 2015, summer flows on both the Nicola and Coldwater River have decreased below the Fisheries Resource Maintenance Flows defined by Kosakoski and Hamilton (1982) in every year from 2016-2024, and below the CEFT in some years. The objective of this work was to identify locations with sufficient water storage capacity and inflow to support the development of water storage reservoirs. The following subsections summarize the results of the study, outline key assumptions and limitations, and provide guidance for future work.

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Data Owner(s) Nicola Watershed Governance Partnership, Ecoscape Environmental Consultants Ltd.
Status Not featured
Dataset Collection Organization Ecoscape Environmental Consultants Ltd.
Dataset Steward Email patrick.farmer@gov.bc.ca
Dataset Upload Year 2025
Dataset Earliest Record Start Date 2025-06-26
Dataset Latest Record End Date 2025-06-26
Level of Confidentiality Public
Dataset Data Disclaimer No warranty or guarantee exists that the information is accurate, complete, current, or suitable for any purpose. Instrument accuracy may be limited. The individual user must confirm the accuracy of the data and whether it will be appropriate for their purpose.
Brief description of dataset location This study Coldwater River and Nicola River watersheds1 are located within the traditional territory of the Nlaka’pamux Nation and encompass both watersheds upstream from Merritt, B.C. (Figure 2-1). Although these watersheds are both located within glacially influenced terrain (Fulton, 1969) and used heavily for agriculture, they vary in their topography, hydroclimate, and water regulation. The following sections summarize each watershed as well as relevant previous studies.
Watershed Nicola Watershed
Dataset DOI
Language English
Purpose The objective of this work is to identify locations with sufficient water storage capacity and inflow to support the development of new water storage reservoirs or augment storage in existing reservoirs.
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Dataset Latitude 50.182328
Dataset Longitude -120.60148
Additional Contact Information forests.cascadesdistrictoffice@gov.bc.ca
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