YANKTON, SD (KMTV) — In light of potential "above normal runoff for 2020," the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) will be increasing, conditions permitting, the the amount of water being released at Gavins Point Dam on the Missouri-Nebraska border.
The USACE says it will be increasing the cubic feet per second being released from 35,000 to 41,000 later this week. They hope the preventative measure will allow them to "maintain available flood control storage space."
“This is keeping with our aggressive strategy to maintain as much flood control storage as possible for as long as possible, said John Remus, chief of the Corps’ Missouri River Basin Water Management Division.
Releases will only be increased as long as the resulting downstream river stages are unlikely to impact the levee recovery effort, or contribute to downstream flooding.
A spring flood outlook will be issued by the National Weather Service on February 27 and the Corps will release theirs on March 5.
