Heavy rainfall throughout the Upper Missouri River Basin over the weekend has prompted the US Army Corps of Engineers to adjust its three week outlook from numbers just released on Friday.
Team lead for the Corps’ Power Production in the Missouri River Water Management Division Mike Swenson says the Oahe reservoir will again be releasing some water through the regulating tunnels.
Swenson says above Oahe, the Garrison and Fort Peck reservoirs in North Dakota are down .4 feet and .2 feet, respectively, in the past week.
He says Big Bend spillway releases were adjusted yesterday (Mon.) to alleviate some pressure at the Fort Randall and Gavins Point dams.
The Gavins Point Dam at Yankton is the last place the US Army Corps can adjust the rate of flow from the Upper Missouri River Basin into the Lower Basin. The Corps has about 11 weeks to evacuate more than half of the Missouri River Dam System’s flood control storage space before having to reduce to winter release rates.
Swenson says 9 million acre feet of the system’s 16.3 MAF of total flood storage is occupied.
