On December 13th the area received 174 millimetres of rain and snow melt in a 24 hour period, raising Lake Utopia by 13 feet.
Engineer Ryan Berg says it wasn't the dam, but a natural obstruction that kept water levels from going down.
He says it was an outcrop of rock upstream of the Brunswick Street bridge that acted as a natural dam and kept the water levels from decreasing.
The dam's main gate was opened in two stages during the flooding, once on the 13th of December and once on the 14th.
Berg says even if the gate had been opened four days prior to the storm water levels would only have gone down an additional 2.2 inches.
He says if the dam did not exist and the river system was in its natural state water levels would only have been 8 inches lower.
