Second Peak Of Water Flows Conducted

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers conducted its second peak of water flows from Fort Peck late last week.

During a conference call on Wednesday, June 19, John Remus, chief of the Missouri Basin Water Management Division, said the flow was at 14,500 cubic feet per second in Wolf Point. The plan was to hit the target of 20,000 cfs starting on Sunday, June 23, and have it last for three days before decreasing.

“By Wednesday, we should be on our way down,” Remus said.

He said the target of 20,000 cfs is lower than the earlier announced amount of 20,500 cfs. “Our retention flow is a little less than planned,” Remus said.

On July 6, releases will be reduced to maintain a flow of 8,000 cfs at Wolf Point.

The second peak flow was scheduled to begin on June 13, but it was delayed due to the stage forecast at Williston, N.D., being above 22.0 feet.

Joe Bonneau, Missouri River Recovery Program manager, reported that some monitoring have been delayed because officials want to conduct monitoring during peak flows.

“It will still occur during the peak,” Bonneau said.

Pat Bratten, U.S. Geological Survey, said there are still 20 telemetered pallid sturgeon including three reproductive females in the responding reach.

As of Wednesday, June 19, those pallid sturgeon included five near Oswego, four near Wolf Point, six near the Poplar River confluence, one between Culbertson and Brockton and four east of Culbertson.

During the flow test a number of monitoring activities will be conducted to include fish monitoring, LiDAR and aerial photography, physical surveys, cultural resource surveys and water quality sampling.

Interested parties can also provide information through a webbased application that can be found at https://hydroviz.ca/fort-peckfeedback or Missouri.Water.Management@ nwd02.usace.army.mil.