The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been slowly reducing releases from Yankton’s Gavins Point Dam over the last several days.
Spokesman Mike Swenson says releases have been lowered at a rate of 3,000 cubic feet per second per day since the end of November:
OC……….that rate through December. :15
Releases will then be reduced to 25,000 cfs in January and remain near that rate the remainder of the winter.
Gavins Point Dam winter releases normally range between 12,000 and 17,000 cfs.
John Remus, chief of the Corps’ Missouri River Basin Water Management Division, says they continue to monitor basin and channel conditions very closely and will make any necessary adjustments;
OC…….severely impacted. ;24
The higher-than-average releases will benefit municipal and industrial water intakes below Gavins Point Dam, which can be impacted by low water levels during periods of ice formation.
The November runoff above Sioux City was 2-million acre feet, which is 195% of average.
