The dam, located near Estevan in southern Saskatchewan, was constructed by the government of Canada in 1957. The proposed spillway upgrade project will increase the capacity of the existing spillway to pass the Probable Maximum Flood.
The main purpose of the dam is to store the necessary water for the 813MW coal fired Boundary dam power station. According to the proposed implementation schedule, during the first year of the project work is being done on engineering, public consultation and design.
Phase 1 of the construction will be the removal and rebuilding of the upper section of the spillway, scheduled for 2008. The lower half of the spillway will be completed in 2009. The challenge will be to complete the work without interruption to the cooling water supply to the power station and to maintain spillway function during high water periods. However, the spillway has seen very little usage during the past few decades.
