More water coming down the Missouri River - now!
More water coming down the Missouri River - now!
Spillway gates could be topped next week
It is possible that Garrison Dam may be within a foot of the top of its spillway gates by this time next week.
That’s the opinion of U. S. Army Corps of Engineers officials.
There have been two times the reservoir has reached that plateau – in 1975 and again in 1997.
Repeated rounds of heavy rain across Montana and the Dakotas, coupled with far above normal mountain snowpack, have pushed reservoirs to a level which calls for aggressive water releases from Missouri River mainstem dams, said Jody Farhat, Chief of the Corps’ Missouri River Basin Water Management Division in Omaha.
Farhat said the upper Missouri River is seeing dramatic increases in flows, particularly after as much as eight inches of rain fell over the weekend in portions of eastern Montana and western North Dakota.
