By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
Bitter cold temperatures formed ice jams on the Missouri River earlier this winter, dropping the river’s level.
Missouri River Basin Water Management Chief John Remus says that prompted the U.S. Corps of Engineers to increase water releases from Gavins Point Dam from the minimum of 12-thousand cubic feet per second to mitigate the effects of the sudden extreme cold.
But now, Remus says things are getting back to normal.
"We just this week began to reduce releases as the ice cover and the associated impacts began to stabilize," Remus tells a monthly conference call held by the Corps of Engineers for members of Congress, state officials in Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, and Iowa as well as the news media. "We will continue to monitor the river conditions and weather forecast, and make operational adjustments to the extent possible."
Remus says the runoff from the Upper River basin this year is forecast to be below average, running possibly even longer than this year.
Runoff into the Upper Missouri River basin could be below average for some time officials with the US Army Corps of Engineers say.
Remus says it doesn’t appear the drought affecting Upper Missouri River Basin states will end any time soon.
"We are anticipating continuing our water conservation measures into 2023 and possibly longer," Remus says. "Conservation measures are reduced, low support to navigation, and minimal winter releases."
Remus says the Corps understands the importance of the river providing water for irrigation and industrial uses, and hopes to keep the Missouri River levels high enough to serve all the communities that rely on the river.
The Missouri Army Corps of Engineers reports it had to increase water releases from Gavins Point Dam after the extreme cold formed ice jams on the Missouri River.
During the Corps conference call, Hydrologist Kevin Low with the National Weather Service in Pleasant Hill says the bitter cold snap had an effect all along the lower Missouri River basin.
"One in the Nebraska/Iowa reach and the other in the reach below Kansas City, neither of those resulted in flooding but both of those resulted in record low stages in the stretches of the Missouri below those two respective dams," Low says.
Low says looking ahead there is a better than 50-50 chance of seeing some flooding between now and March, according to the National Weather Service’s 90-day outlook of the Missouri River.