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Spillway is wide open, Assiniboine River is rising. Apparently water is near the top of the dam and they are preparing for an iminant failure of the Dam. The dam is 70ft tall holding back over 500 million cubic meters of water. If the Dam catastrophically fails every Town and Bride along the Assiniboine River could potentially be washed away. Brandon could be cut in half.  
 
Let us all hope and pray that the Dam holds.

are you getting your information from? This story sounds disturbing to some people I’m sure.

Apparently the Dam is designed to handle overtopping and that is what emergency crews are preparing for. Water physical exceeding the top of the dam. I was misinformed.  
 
If water runs over the top the river will raise rapidly but this should not actually damage the Dam.

If the dam was managed by people who knew what they were doiing it would not have gotten to this point.  
If they had been regulating it properly all along unsted of waiting so long to release water only when it got to the critical point it would not get to this  
A little at a time insted of all at once...  
By the way I am not an expert on water management but I heard an interview with an expert on CBC Radio what has been going on there all along ...... It has more to do with power and control than anything else....  
Everyone who is knowledgeable about this knows what they need to do to solve this but they will not do anything about it,,,,, just like Trump and his friends who won't ...  
And don't anyone critize my comments on this unless it is POSITIVE COMMENTS because I will not respond to negative comments.

Brandon already knows what is coming and that is why they are guickly filling in the Dam at 18 th St this evening to prevent severe damage to this area

The Assiniboine has flooded Brandon many times before in my lifetime. Yes, some streets were closed, but access to all parts of the city was always possible, if a little inconvenient. First responders are well-aware of alternate routes in an emergency, and, as always, should be given priority in traffic. Some businesses and homes may be adversely affected and that is unfortunate. But, we live in a river valley and we cannot control Mother Nature. Not sure why your post seems so panicky….

I figured that the closure of Grand Valley road was in anticipation of more water coming down the channel in the event of more unforeseen heavy rains. If shellmouth failed, I feel like that little dike will do little for anyone in the evacuation zone of the 2011 flood.  
 
I am not fear mongering. I have no idea of the state of the reservoir nor the policies or politics behind it's operation. I should hope that such an important piece of infrastructure is provincially and federally regulated beyond the reach of narrow minded political busybodies.  
 
But again, I haven't a clue so I can't give an informed take.  
 
Edited by Simonwalcal, 2026-07-04 11:51:10

I'm also no expert. It doesn't take rocket appliances to know everywhere downstream of that dam has been getting a ton of rain aswell. Flooding more and more downstream, if they have done what your saying how many other places would be destroyed? An expert likely thinks about every variable. Keep your thoughts to yourself.

From the construction of dam and spillway being brought online in 1972 . The hydrologists have used a height of 1,386 feet above sea level as an operating level. This is decided on historical weather, rainfall data and a best educated guess for release of water. This year due to above average snows above dam and rapid melts much of the watersheds above dam provided ABOVE average run off which was being managed before mother nature unleased weeks of rainfall again ABOVE average 3.5 to 4.5 inches, In the last month alone we have encountered as much as 10 inches over a vast portion of province. If you take into factors like this the unforeseen additional water exasperated problem. I am just pointing out farmers are in tough no matter how we look at it prices and input cost keep climbing, more sloughs, low spots and marsh's that in years past buffered and held water have been filled in to drain water. Practices like this allow water to escape rapidly and can overwhelm even the best laid plans to control water. One chooses to farm marginal land only because the dam made it usable but remember this is a flood zone. Add in what mother nature can do that is out of our control and we are still going to see this in future. My heart goes out to families and friends who are impacted, as well yes I was raise on a farm and do get it from that veiw.

I suspect there is a political piece to it as well. MB is much stricter on drainage than SK. SK typically will not stop illegal drainage, they just try and turn it into legal drainage. (But a project to slow down the flow can take several years) When SK farmers can send all their water downstream, but MB farmers can't, it's not really a fair situation, and I bet the MB government can guess they're going to take the blame.

Speaking with my older cousin (75+), he mentioned that he remembered the Shellmouth Dam was Phase 1. He thought that there was a plan for another dam (Phase 2) further upstream from the Shellmouth Dam. Does anyone else remember this or have any information on it?

When I worked for the City of Estevan back in 2011, which is situated on the Souris River, the RM's and the City of Estevan worked with officials from North Dakota and Manitoba to predict and prepare for the floods, and they closely monitored the flows and levels and communicated with officials involved in order to prepare.  
 
This practice still happens, but in all cases elected officials are informed by the experts, the elected officials are NOT the ones making the decisions, regardless of which Province or state you come from.