LAKE ELLESMERE OUTLET

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28895, 15 May 1959, Page 7

LAKE ELLESMERE OUTLET

Another Cut Made

Yesterday Bulldozers of the North Canterbury Catchment Board yesterday morning opened the outlet from Lake Ellesmere for the sixth time in a month and the board’s engineering staff was anxiously waiting for the 9 p.m. tide to see if the sea would close it again.

A board spokesman said yesterday that Lake Ellesmere was 5.9 ft above mean sea level. Usually the outlet is cut when the lake is at 3.7 ft. Yesterday water was washing through the settlement of Lower Selwyn Huts, on the shores of the lake, but none of the huts or the people living in them was in danger. The board spokesman said the outlet had been opened aix times in the last month to lower the level of the lake. “To date we have not been successful.” He said the outlet had been open for three days about two weeks ago, but the sea had closed it again. “We opened it the day before yesterday, but it was blocked by the tide last night. “This morning we got it open again and now we have to wait for the next tide. There is a big sea running and conditions are not good,” he said. Bulldozers open the outlet by cutting through the gravel between the lake and the sea to make an outlet roughly 80ft wide, but if the seas are heavier than the flow from the lake the gravel seals the opening.