The Missouri River will remain high through the summer, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officials said Thursday.
The recent dry weather has allowed the Corps to keep discharges at its dams at high levels, allowing them to reduce flood storage capacities, which had reached record levels following melt-off from heavy winter snows and heavy rainfall in the spring on the northern sections of the river.
As of Thursday afternoon, the Corps was calling for releases from Gavins Point Dam in South Dakota, the southern-most of the Corps' dams on the northern end of the Missouri River, to remain at 70,000 cubic feet of water per second into August.
Conditions have also improved on the Osage River, where the flood storage level at Truman Dam in Warsaw was down to 47 percent capacity, compared to 58 percent last week. The dam was releasing 45,000 cfs of water Thursday afternoon, but Corps officials expected that to go up to 50,000 by the weekend. Bagnell Dam at the Lake of the Ozarks was releasing just under 50,000 on Thursday, as Ameren Missouri, which owns the dam, was working with the Corps to make sure levels on the Osage River stay balanced between Truman and Bagnell.
As of Thursday afternoon, the National Weather Service showed the Missouri River in Jefferson City was at 23 feet, which is flood stage. It is forecast to fall to 22 feet Saturday and stay at that level through the beginning of August.
Officials with the Corps office in Kansas City said they had received 104 requests for help with dam repairs and, so far, 15 requests had been approved. Although water levels on the Missouri River remain high, boating navigation on the river is still being allowed.
Last week, Gov. Mike Parson announced the creation of a flood recovery task force. When asked during a news conference Thursday if the state needed to put more money into infrastructure or hazard mitigation to guard against floods in the future, Parson said flood control would have to be part of the overall infrastructure plan for the state.
"We're already in the process to work with federal officials to see how we could redesign or re-operate the Missouri River and the levees that surround it," Parson said. "That could mean more money from other states. We've met with governors from Minnesota, Iowa and Kansas about how we could pull resources together to try and help manage the Missouri, similar to what we do with the Mississippi (River)."