Amount of water released into Missouri River to be reduced
The Corps began reducing water flow from Gavins Point Dam late last month and has now reached its winter level of about 17,000 cubic feet per second.
By News Channel NebraskaOMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The amount of water being released into the Missouri River from a key dam on the Nebraska-South Dakota border has been reduced to winter levels, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at Omaha said Tuesday.
The Corps began reducing water flow from Gavins Point Dam late last month and has now reached its winter level of about 17,000 cubic feet (481.4 cubic meters) per second, the release said.
That’s down significantly from the reduction seen a year earlier, after heavy rain and snow melt in the spring sent the river to record levels and flooded parts of Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas and Missouri. Last year, the Corps waited until mid-December to reduce the fall output to 27,000 cubic feet (765 cubic meters) per second.
Gavins Point Dam winter releases normally range from 12,000 to 17,000 cubic feet (340 to 481.4 cubic meters) per second.
Runoff in the upper Missouri River Basin above Sioux City, Iowa, was 1.2 million acre-feet (1.48 billion cubic meters) during November, or 116% of average, the Corps said. The 2020 calendar year runoff forecast is 30.6 million acre-feet (37.74 billion cubic meters), or 119% of average. Average annual runoff is 25.8 million acre-feet (31.82 billion cubic meters).