While the water levels of the big lakes remain high, they are continuing to drop, says hydrologist Anthony Bier of Environment Yukon.

Bier said Tuesday that Lake Laberge is still about 75 centimetres above average and Marsh Lake, Bennett Lake and Tagish Lake are still about 50 centimetres above average.

They’re all about one metre below the peak they reached this past summer, as is the Yukon River at Whitehorse, he said.

Bier said discharge from the lakes has stayed relatively high.

Marsh Lake, he explained, is still above the full supply level as described in Yukon Energy’s water licence required to generate hydro electricity at the Whitehorse Rapids Dam.

When it drops to the full supply level, likely in the second week of October, Biers said, Yukon Energy can begin controlling the flow through the control structure just below the Lewes River Bridge.

“At that point, the flow in the Yukon River will begin to decline more rapidly and Lake Laberge will begin to fall more quickly, he said.

Bier said the decline in water levels is about average now but they are retreating from a high level.

September was an average month for precipitation, he said.

“It’s our expectation that once the full supply level is reached, Yukon Energy will begin regulating the discharge from Marsh Lake,” he said.

Peak levels in the big lakes over the summer were all higher than what was seen in the 2007 flood year.