A vegetated island the size of two football fields may or may not still be floating around in a massive man-made lake in northern British Columbia, Canada. And nobody is quite sure how it wound up there- or where it went.
Earlier this month, BC resident Rocky Avery posted a video and photos of a forested landmass that a friend had sent after spotting the unexpected vacation destination (okay, not quite) in Williston Lake, also known as the Williston Reservoir, which is at its highest water level in 14 years.
“There was a big fishing derby coming up, so I wanted to make sure everybody was aware of what was going on. And I wanted BC Hydro to know too that it was out there, just in case it was floating down their way,” Avery dutifully told CBC News.
The Williston Reservoir, the seventh-largest reservoir in the world, is impounded behind BC Hydro’s W.A.C. Bennett Dam, a towering earth-fill dam on the Peace River. Its Gordon M. Shrum Generating Station has the capacity to generate more than 13,000 gigawatt-hours (GWh) annually, capable of supplying more than a third of British Columbia’s power demand. When it was built, the powerhouse was the largest of its kind worldwide and is still the most robust in the province.
Initially incredulous when asked about the rogue island, BC Hydro confirmed its legitimacy via satellite imagery. A utility spokesperson estimated it to be about 70 meters wide and 140 meters long (roughly 230 by 460 feet). Given the maturity of some of its flora, the landmass certainly didn’t spawn overnight, but any efforts to ascertain the island’s origins have been put on hold, as it has since re-vanished, slipping back into the ether from whence it came and disappearing from view of the same satellites that verified its existence.
BC Hydro told CBC News it’s likely the island broke free from another hunk of seaside property when the utility opened the W.A.C. Bennett Dam’s spillways in June and July to release excess water from high winter snowpacks and saturating summer rainfall. That would lead one to infer that the thing has since found a new shoreline to snuggle up to, somewhere. The utility would prefer that location is nowhere near its hydroelectric operations, as marshy masses like this one could damage critical infrastructure if they end up in the wrong places.
Floating islands in dammed lakes have been reported from Wisconsin to Africa, so they’re nothing new, but the nature of large waterways makes them tough to spot. The Williston Reservoir is too large to patrol, so BC Hydro will have to keep monitoring photos from the eyes in the sky for any potential re-emergence. All quiet since at least August 3.
Typical private islands- never around when you need one, always in your way when you don’t.
We have reached out to BC Hydro for comment on this story and are awaiting a response.
