It was the news residents and businesses along the flooded Missouri River basin did not want to hear.
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officials said Tuesday that releases from Gavins Point Dam in South Dakota, the southern-most of the Corps' dams on the northern portion of the Missouri River, would remain above normal through the rest of the summer and into the fall.
Releases from Gavins Point Dam were at 70,000 cubic feet of water per second as of Tuesday afternoon. That's more than twice the average release for this time of the year.
John Remus, chief of the Corps' Missouri River Basin Water Management Division, said releases will likely stay at this level through the rest of July.
"However, by late July or early August, we could reduce that amount, depending on how much precipitation we get in the upper basin and right now it is predicted to be above normal," Remus said. "If the forecast allows, we could get down into the mid-50,000 cfs mark by the end of August."
Levee district managers, particularly in the St. Joseph area, had asked Corps officials last month to consider significantly cutting Gavins Point releases for an eight- to 10-day period so the river could fall faster.
"We looked at a number of different options, but none were found feasible," Remus said. "It's not worth us carrying more water later in the year or raising the flows later in the year. We're concerned about the levees, too, but if we drained the dams now, we would have to put that water back on those levees later this year."
The National Weather Service predicts rain in the upper regions of the Missouri River over the next week could slow the river's recession. Meanwhile, the mountain snowpack in the upper regions is nearly gone, and most has flowed into the reservoirs.
On the Osage River, Truman Dam was releasing 39,000 cfs of water Tuesday afternoon. If conditions improve downstream on the Missouri River, Corps officials said, they could increase Truman Dam releases to 42,000 by today or Thursday, to 45,000 on Friday and to 50,000 by the weekend or early next week.
The increases would come because five Corps dams upstream from Warsaw have increased discharges into Truman. The Corps uses the levels of the Missouri River at Hermann as a target for how much water to release at Truman.
The Missouri River at Hermann was at 29.8 feet as of Tuesday afternoon. Flood stage is 21 feet. Corps officials noted the river has held at around 30 feet for the last couple of days, so they felt confident they could continue the Truman discharges without causing the Missouri River to rise.
So far the Corps has received 86 requests for repair assistance from 64 levee systems damaged along the Missouri River basin. The survey work won't be done until September. Two contracts for repairs to levees in Holt County in northwestern Missouri were approved last week.
Weekly updates on basin conditions, reservoir levels and other topics of interest can be viewed at www.nwd-mr.usace.army.mil/rcc/index.html. The Missouri River in Jefferson City was at 29.2 feet, 6 feet above flood stage of 23 feet, and falling, as of Tuesday afternoon. The National Weather Service in St. Louis forecasts the river will fall to flood stage by Saturday.
Additional weather resources:
Corps of Engineers Missouri River basin reports