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By
Manfred
Jager
Winnipeg
Free
Press
Wednesday,
October
14,
1998
Jean-Pierre
Brunet
used
to
spend
a
lot
of
time
sitting
on
the
riverbank
watching
the
river
flow.Now
he
spends
a
lot
of
time
wondering
where
the
river
has
gone.
Brunet,
president
of
the
Save
Our
Seine
River
Environment
Inc.,
said
the
tail
end
of
the
Seine
has
slowed
to
a
trickle
because
of
a
bad
leak
at
the
Red
River
Floodway.
When
the
floodway
was
built
in
the
1960s,
a
special
culvert
was
constructed
to
carry
the
Seine-which
starts
south
of
Steinbach
and
flows
through
Lorette-under
the
huge
earthen
dike
and
into
Winnipeg.
Now
the
Seine
bubbles
up
from
the
culvert
into
the
floodway.
The
Seine's
levels
in
the
city
are
way
down,
with
the
only
water
now
entering
the
Seine
coming
from
storm
sewer
runoff
in
South
St.
Vital,
Brunet
said.
"As
environmentalists,
we
are
very
concerned
about
the
water
supply
to
the
Seine,"
Brunet
said.
"We've
been
in
touch
with
the
Department
of
Natural
Resources,
but
we're
not
getting
very
much
co-operation
from
them."
Steve
Topping,
director
of
the
water
resources
branch
in
the
Natural
Resources
Department,
said
his
engineers
have
been
aware
of
the
Seine
siphon
leak
for
years
and
monitor
it
annually.
This
year's
inspection
has
not
yet
taken
place,
Topping
said.
It's
scheduled
for
later
this
month.
The
Seine
culvert
is
designed
to
channel
up
to
150
cubic
feet
of
water
per
second
under
the
floodway
and
into
the
city.
If
more
than
that
rushes
through,
the
upper
lip
of
the
culvert
siphons
the
surplus
off
and
spills
it
into
the
floodway,
as
it
did
during
the
flood
of
the
century
15
months
ago.
Right
now,
there's
plenty
of
river
water,
about
10
cubic
feet
per
second,
but
nothing
coming
out
the
other
end.
Harold
Thwaites,
the
group's
vice-president,
said
turtles,
frogs,
muskrats
and
beaver
could
die
if
there
isn't
enough
water.
"The
flow
is
zero,"
Thwaites
said.
"It
all
bubbles
up
into
the
floodway."
Thwaites
said
the
province's
resources
branch
has
known
about
the
leak
in
the
culvert/siphon
structure
since
1990.
The
spill
rate
at
that
time
was
estimated
at
about
0.7
cfs.
"I
guess
we're
looking
at
a
leak
that's
10
times
worse
than
it
was
in
1990,"
Thwaites
said.
Thwaites
said
the
big
leak
could
mean
a
giant
soil
washout
somewhere
beneath
he
floodway,
not
unlike
sink-holes
under
roads."Whether
or
not
that's
dangerous
I'm
not
sure,"
Thwaites
said.
"Whether
it's
annoying,
yes;
very
much
so."
"My
engineers
have
been
watching
that
for
a
number
of
years
and
it's
not
dangerous.
It
has
been
very
minor
since
we
first
learned
about
it,"
he
said.
"Since
the
'97
flood,
we
have
noted
the
leak
is
a
little
higher,
but
not
as
high
as
purported
here.
We
do
have
a
difference
of
opinion
there."
Topping
said
the
water
resources
branch
is
"looking
at
the
entire
floodway
infrastructure
for
rehabilitation
and
improvement."The
system
is
30
years
old
now
we
need
to
go
through
the
whole
system
and
see
what
needs
to
be
done
here.
"In
some
sections
this
could
mean
total
refurbishment,
Topping
said.
"The
Seine
River
siphon
is
one
of
the
structures
we're
looking
at,"
he
said
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