The Portage Diversion along the Assiniboine River closed last Friday, ending one chapter of this year's flood fight. Steve Topping, Executive Director of Manitoba Water Stewardship, says all the flows have fallen off to the point where they could shut the Diversion off.

Topping notes while the hot, dry weather we've been experiencing is certainly not good for the agricultural sector, it has been working in Lake Manitoba's favour. He adds there arae currently two outflows from the lake; the Fiarford River and evaporation and evaporation is big significant during this dry spell.

He adds the Fairford control structure will still be operated to maximum capacity to ensure that lake levels continue to drop significantly.

Topping says the Portage Diversion's design capacity is 25 thousand cubic feet per second and at the peak of this spring's flood its capacity was increased to 34 thousand cfs. He notes that required rip-rapping all structures, putting additional erosion protection in place, and building up both banks of the Diversion to contain the flows.

Topping adds now that the water is shut off in the Diversion, they're doing damage inspections and condition assessments of structures. He says their first priority is to bring the Diversion back to its original condition prior to the flood, because they do need to prepare it for potential operation next spring.