Concern continues to grow over the Chilcotin River landslide in B.C.’s Central Interior, which has created an unstable dam holding back thousands of litres of water.
The provincial government will be providing an update on the situation at 1 p.m. PT. Bowinn Ma, Minister of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness, and Nathan Cullen, Minister of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship, will be joined by technical staff from the province.
That will be livestreamed above and this story will be updated after the press conference.
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On Wednesday, a landslide blocked the Chilcotin River, which feeds into the Fraser River. The landslide is approximately 22 km upstream from the Farwell Canyon Bridge and is estimated to be roughly 600 to 800 metres in length, 300 to 600 metres in width and roughly 30 metres in depth.
The new lake that has formed behind the landslide stretches about eight km upstream and officials said on Thursday that the water is likely to breach by either pouring over the top or seeping through, causing the dam to give way.
Geotechnical crews are in the area surveying the slide site, which is being described as sandy and extremely unstable.
The dam is under 24-hour surveillance.
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