Home Local News GAVINS POINT DAM WATER RELEASES TO REMAIN ABOVE NORMAL

GAVINS POINT DAM WATER RELEASES TO REMAIN ABOVE NORMAL

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Water releases from Yankton’s Gavins Point Dam into the Missouri River will remain above normal for the next several months.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says it’s because of higher-than-average runoff being forecast in the Missouri River Basin above Sioux City.

The Corps has increased the service level 15,000 cubic feet per second above full service to facilitate the evacuation of stored flood waters.

That means Gavins Point releases may be increased to 42,000 cfs, and possibly higher, as downstream tributary flows recede.

John Remus, Chief of the Missouri River Basin Water Management Division, says Gavins Point releases will be adjusted, when needed, in response to basin conditions.

The runoff forecast in the Missouri River Basin above Sioux City, Iowa, is 33.2 million acre feet, 131 percent of average according to the Corps.

Remus says more than 70 percent of the System’s flood storage remains available to capture runoff from the mountain snowmelt and spring and summer rainfall events.

Gavins Point Dam releases were increased to 37,000 cfs in early May.