By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
Water releases from Gavins Point Dam upstream on the Missouri River are being lowered as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers prepares the river for winter.
Chief of Missouri River Basin Water Management, John Remus, says with the end of the navigation season on the Missouri River, releases from the Gavins Point Dam are being lowered to 12,000 cubic feet per second. Remus says drought in the upper Missouri River Basin cut flows from Gavins Point throughout the summer.
“During the navigation support season, we were at minimum service or close to minimum service for all of 2021,” Remus tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. “So, we were in a water conservation mode, providing a little bit less flow support for navigation downstream of Gavins.”
Remus says the Corps will closely monitor the flow of the Missouri River this winter, watching to adjust water flows if ice jams form on the river. Ice jams can lower the Missouri River level below intake valves used to service municipal water systems.
Remus says the current flow of 13,000 cubic feet per second will be dropped, until rising again for the spring and summer navigation season.
“The reservoirs are drawn down, but there’s still a lot of water in the multiple use carryover zone or the conservation storage,” according to Remus. “We will be able to support navigation, probably at a minimum level, come next spring.”
Remus says though the stubborn drought in the upper Missouri River Basin has reduced flows into the six upstream Missouri River dams, the system is prepared to handle lingering drought.
“We’ll see where Mother Nature takes us next year,” Remus says. “The system is doing what it’s designed to do and that is provide support to the basin through a long drought.”
Remus says it is too early to forecast whether the drought will continue and force the Corps to cut springs releases into the Missouri River. He says that depends on mountain snowpack this winter.