It looks like Mayo may have tackled its flooding problem, says the local incident commander for the emergency response organization.

Don Hutton said this morning that backhoes spent the better part of two days building a diversion ditch between the Mayo River and the flood dike to capture overflow which was pouring up against a low-lying area of the dike.

It wasn't more than two hours after completion of the ditch Tuesday afternoon that water in the channel of overflow dropped by 45 to 60 cm (18 to 24 inches), Hutton said.

"It was encouraging for everybody involved because that was really the first hint that we are doing the right thing.”

A couple of weeks ago, water was beginning to rise in low areas on the community's outskirts. It had flooded a good chunk of the yard where Yukon Energy has its diesel generation plant, about 300 metres from the river.

The plant itself was not flooded.

The publicly owned electrical utility has since diverted water further away and has constructed an ice and gravel berm around the generating station.

With no evidence of any breach in the dike, it was believed overflow was seeping beneath the structure and travelling below surface to the low-lying areas.

Hutton said the apparent success in solving the problem over the last couple of days has truly been a joint effort by the Village of Mayo, Yukon Energy, the Emergency Measures Organization and local contractors doing the work.

Representatives of the organizations were scheduled to meet via conference call this morning.

Hutton said before first light today, he went down to the diversion ditch and it looked like the water level had fallen even further.

If enough water can be diverted, and he's hopeful it can, crews will go in and place down non-permeable, road-building cloth and gravel against the dike to prevent more seepage, he said.

Hutton said if they can plug the dike, they'll begin concentrating their efforts on pumping out water which has accumulated in the low areas on the village side.

The plan is to dig a sump down into an existing low area to attract the surrounding flood water, then pump it back into the river, he said.

Nobody is certain about what is causing the large amount of overflow on the river.

Mayo Mayor Scott Bolton suggested last Friday one has to at least look at Yukon Energy's operation of the Mayo dam and how it's changed since Dawson City was connected to the hydro facility in 2003.

Janet Patterson, the spokeswoman for Yukon Energy, said last week the corporation has reviewed its operation of the Mayo dam and saw nothing that would have caused the large amount of overflow.

But it will be conducting studies later this winter to see if there's anything it can do to help in a similar situation, just as it did when flooding in Whitehorse'sMarwell industrial area was an issue years ago, she said.

For now, Patterson emphasized, the focus is on dealing with the issues around flooding.