Heavy rainfall welcome for Cowichan River salmon spawn

For more than a month, pumps have been pumping water over the weir on Cowichan Lake around the clock to maintain a minimal flow for salmon. (CTV News)

With up to 120 millimetres of rain expected to fall on the east coast of Vancouver Island in the coming days, it's welcome news for those protecting the Cowichan River and its chinook salmon spawn.

For more than a month, pumps have been pumping water over the weir on Cowichan Lake around the clock to maintain a minimal flow for salmon.

The pumps have only be been used before, back in 2019, but were only on for approximately 10 days.

The river is flowing at around 4.5 cubic metres per second, which is not ideal for chinook salmon. The river can typically see flows 10 times stronger than that during this time of year.

"They're not what we need for salmon," says Tom Rutherford, director of strategic priorities on the Cowichan Watershed Board. "If I was a salmon, I probably wouldn't be super happy."

Ten thousand chinook salmon have passed through the salmon-counting fence on the Cowichan Tribes land so far and another 10,000 are expected to return.

The Cowichan Watershed Board is hopeful that the pumps can be turned off after the heavy rainfall this week.

Talks continue with the province about raising the weir so more water can be stored during the summer.