Vaseux Lake Siltation

If you’ve done any boating on Vaseux Lake over recent decades, and especially over the last few years, you might have noticed that the north of the lake is becoming more and more shallow. So shallow, in fact, that you might need to get out of your canoe or kayak and push it into the channel if you are heading north.

The problem is siltation, coming down from Shuttleworth Creek at Okanagan Falls which flows into the Okanagan River and then Vaseux Lake. The silt from the creek has built up extensively at the north end of the lake, to the extent that it has “literally turning into land.”

The heavy siltation is due to a failure to dredge Shuttleworth Creek for 15 years, until 2014.

With the north end silting up, the lake becomes more shallow, a condition which has contributed to the milfoil problems the lake has suffered, AND those weeds act like a filter to trap effluents flowing down both the Okanagan River and Shuttleworth Creek from the north.

With ‘encouragement’ from the Vaseux Lake Stewardship Association, dredging of Shuttleworth Creek is now being done on a yearly basis, however, you can see by looking at the photos below, the damage that has been done to the lake in the 15 years that no effort was made to take care of the siltation problem.

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