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Army Corps Will Change Basin Runoff Forecast

Susan Hanson
/
SDPB

After intense flooding in the Midwest, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers adjusted release rates from Gavins Point Dam.

John Remus is the Chief of the Missouri River Basin Water Management Division.

He says releases have decreased over the day Tuesday and are planned to be adjusted again on Wednesday.

Officials reduced releases at Gavins Point to 28,000 cubic feet per second at 6 p.m. Central Time on Tuesday.

Remus says, due to greater snowmelt in the northern plains, more runoff than was previously forecast is now expected. He says releases are being adjusted accordingly.

“We are reevaluating our March first runoff forecast. Preliminary indications are that the annual runoff in the upper basin above Sioux City [,Iowa] will be more than what we forecasted on March first. We will continue to monitor run-off conditions over the next few weeks as the temperatures in the upper basin warm up and the remaining plains snowpack melts. Our next official runoff forecast will be April first."

Remus says his office's weekly update is now being released on a daily cycle. He says that report will resume its normal schedule when mainstem conditions return to normal.