Final Call Held For Test Flows
The U.S. Corps of Engineers held its final scheduled conference call of the year regarding test water flows from the Fort Peck Dam on Wednesday, July 31.
The average daily release rate from Fort Peck has been increased from 8,000 cubic feet per second to 9,000 cfs, and monitoring of pallid sturgeon will continue.
John Remus, chief of the Missouri River Basin Water Management Division, explained that because there are no indications of spawning, a drift flow was not undertaken.
“Last Thursday, we resumed what we call regular operations,” Remus said.
Remus added that officials will continue to accept feedback through a web-based application that can be found at https://hydroviz. ca/fortpeck-feedback. Test flows were intended to determine if alternative water management scenarios from Fort Peck would improve conditions for the pallid sturgeon, and to identify the potential impacts of alternative management scenarios.
The 2018 Biological Opinion requires the test under the Endangered Species Act for operation of the Missouri River Mainstream Reservoir System. The purpose of the test flows is to evaluate the potential for achieving pallid sturgeon spawning and recruitment on the upper Missouri River. The Corps of Engineers has the requirement to implement test flows when conditions are right during the next 15 years.
