THUNDER BAY — City officials were saying little on Monday morning about the unexpected draining of Boulevard Lake that occurred overnight.
The city issued only a brief statement saying "the gates at Boulevard Lake were lowered without authority, causing the lake to drain."
The gates have now been raised.
The statement said the city is working to restore the normal water level, but it's not known how long it will take to complete the process.
An investigation into the circumstances behind the lowering of the gates is currently underway.
The timing couldn't be worse for businessman Gerry Champagne.
His new floating water park opened on Boulevard Lake just on the weekend.
Champagne told TBnewswatch the water level was still normal at 10 p.m. Sunday when he left for the night.
When he returned at 6 a.m. Monday, he could see right away that the level had dropped drastically.
Champagne said it's his understanding that all the gates on the dam had opened somehow.
He's unsure when he may be able to reopen his water park, saying he's waiting for an update from the city later in the day.
But he understands, he said, that all the gates can't be fully closed to speed up the process, because it's necessary to maintain some flow over the dam to protect fish populations in the Current River.
