News

Corps to release more MO River water later into fall

The Corps of Engineers continues to release a lot of water from the upper basin of the Missouri River.

John Remus is chief of Missouri River Basin Water management and spoke with Brownfield at the recent Corps meeting in Jefferson City, Missouri, “The reason we’re releasing what we’re releasing is to evacuate the flood control storage in the reservoirs so we’re fully prepared for the runoff in 2020 in the upper basin. We are looking at fairly wet soils throughout most of the basins and VERY wet soils in the upper basins.”

Flood management remains the Corps’ top priority, “If we can release more water later into the fall we’re going to try and do that. It kind of depends on how cold it gets and when it gets cold in North Dakota, South Dakota and Montana.”

In the spring, Remus says they’ll be as aggressive as they can without adding to flooding, “So that we kind of maintain as much space and be as flexible as we can next spring because the levees are not going to be repaired by next year.”

The National Weather Service says there’s an increased probability of rain in the Missouri River region over the next four months. Levee repair has just begun in the Omaha district. In the Kansas City district, there’s still too much flooding.