Next week, the US Army Corps of Engineers will start to reduce the amount of water being released from many of the Missouri River Dam projects.
Releases will be incrementally reduced over the next few weeks to winter release rates ahead of the river’s icing-over along the upper portions.
The Oahe Dam is currently releasing 46-thousand cubic feet per second. Starting Monday, flow will be reduced 27,500 cfs with all flows going through the Power Plant. The Stilling Basin has been flowing 5,000 cfs since early September. It’ll be closed Monday morning. Oahe releases will be reduced to 20,500 cfs Dec. 10.
Releases at Big Bend will go down to 27-thousand cfs Dec. 3 and down to 20-thousand cfs Dec. 10.
Releases at both Oahe and Big Bend will be lower on the weekends due to decreased power demand.
Chief of the Corps’ Missouri River Basin Water Management Division John Remus says the 2018 runoff year for the Missouri River Basin upstream from Sioux City is on track to be the third highest since record keeping began in 1898. He says the 2018 runoff forecast is 41.4 million acre feet. Runoff in 1997 was 49 MAF and in 2011 a record 61 MAF.
Remus says 1.9 million acre feet of stored runoff still needs to be released before the 2019 runoff begins. He says the higher than average winter releases are necessary to evacuate the remainder of the 2018 runoff before the 2019 runoff begins.
