WATCH: How the city cleans up freshet debris

UPDATE: (Wednesday, June 29, 2022)

The State of Local Emergency (SOLE) declared June 14, 2022 for the Kelowna area in response to localized flooding has now expired.

It affected the areas along Mission Creek, Scotty Creek and the upper reaches of Mill Creek.

According to Central Okanagan Emergency Operations mountain snow packs have continued to melt over the last two weeks. While creek levels have dropped, extreme rain events could cause creeks to rise again.

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(Original story)

Over the last few weeks, you may have seen lots of unwanted debris on the beaches in Kelowna, a result of the late spring freshet that washed countless trees and branches down Mission Creek and other local waterways.

As of Monday, the lake levels had dropped to 342.627 meters, or 13.5 centimeters over full pool, but heavy rains had the potential to bring yet more debris onto the sand.

Blair Stewart, Parks Services Manager with the City told Kelowna10 this spring had brought a couple of weather events that produced more material coming down than normal.

“I would say based on these last two events there is more than the normal year,” he said. “Over the last five years we’ve had quite a few flooding events and we’ve seen an increase almost every single year that we’ve had those major events. On a normal year we shouldn’t be seeing this much material.”

Stewart said a lot of the debris does comes from Mission Creek and that‘s their main area of work to ensure guests can enjoy the beaches.

“Our main areas we’re concentrating on is Gyro and Rotary Beach; mainly on Rotary because it’s closest proximity to Mission Creek, and that’s where the majority of the material end up piling up,” he said. “Obviously with the weather turning around people are wanting to go out there a lot more, so we want to keep up as best we can.”

Central Okanagan Emergency Operations is advising residents to leave debris at the waterline to prevent further erosion and have instructed the city parks to leave the bigger pieces on the shoreline until further notice.

Stewart said there’s staff that work on the smaller beach accesses and remove the debris by hand. The larger locations require specialized equipment to pick up the material.

He’s been enjoying seeing people coming outdoors now that the weather is improving.

“I think it’s fantastic that people have renewed their acquaintance with parks. We’re starting to see more and more people go there,” he said. “I’ve seen more people go there with their dinners at night hanging out at the beach. When that happens, we need to put more attention and make sure it stays clean and tidy for the public.”