Corp of Engineers up releases at Oahe Dam at Pierre SD
The Missouri River is flooded in several states. But upstream in Pierre, South Dakota, the Army Corps announced it'll raise releases at the Oahe Dam another 10,000 cubic feet per second this weekend. That will bring it to 160,000 by Sunday.
"We are transferring flood storage from Oahe and Big Bend to Fort Randall, which has more storage available at this time," said Jody Farhat, chief of Water Management, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Northwestern Division. "The amount of rain has nearly filled the reservoirs, doing away with most of the flexibility we had built into our operations for this year," said Farhat.
The additional volume will be stored at Fort Randall, with the releases at Fort Randall and Gavins Point remaining at 150,000 cfs. Flows from the Fort Peck and Garrison dams will remain the same, based on current forecast, at 65,000 cfs and 150,000 cfs, respectively.
South Dakota Governor Dennis Daugaard says he is very disappointed by the news.
He says he's concerned and the state is working with the Corps to learn the impact this will have on levees downstream.
Daugaard has named two of his advisers to lead a team that will question the Corps and examine the management decisions that contributed to the flood.
With the initial work complete, the governor says the time has come to ask the Corps why this happened and determine if we can prevent it from happening again.
http://www.ktiv.com/story/14933183/corps-bumps-up-releases-at-oahe-dam-at-pierre
