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  • Upper basin runoff forecast below average; Gavins Point releases to increase for navigation flow support; April public meetings

    The updated 2023 calendar year runoff forecast for the Missouri River Basin above Sioux City, Iowa, continues to be below average. The 2023 calendar year runoff forecast above Sioux City is 21.5 million acre feet, 84% of average. The runoff forecast is based on current soil moisture conditions, plains snowpack, mountain snowpack, and long-term precipitation and temperature outlooks. February runoff in the Missouri River Basin above Sioux City was 1.0 MAF, 86% of average.
  • NR 23-03: Wolf Creek Dam oxygen diffuser project underway

    NASHVILLE, Tenn. (Feb. 9, 2023) – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Nashville District is executing a sustainability project funded by the Section 212 Program to install an upstream diffuser system at Wolf Creek Dam on the Cumberland River in Jamestown, Kentucky.
  • Below average runoff continues for the upper Missouri River Basin in 2023

    The updated 2023 calendar year runoff forecast for the Missouri River Basin above Sioux City, Iowa, continues to be below average. January runoff in the Missouri River Basin above Sioux City was 1.1 million acre-feet, 134% of average. Runoff was above average due to warmer-than-normal temperatures in the upper basin resulting in some snowmelt runoff.
  • Dry Conditions expected to persist for the Missouri River Basin

    For the 2022 calendar year, Missouri River basin runoff above Sioux City, Iowa totaled 19.3 million acre-feet, 75% of average. This was the 30th lowest annual runoff for the Missouri River Basin in 125 years of record-keeping. The ongoing drought shows little relief in sight and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers predicts runoff into the mainstem reservoir system will remain below normal. For 2023, runoff in the Missouri River basin above Sioux City, Iowa is forecast to be 20.8 MAF, 81% of average.
  • Releases from Gavins Point Dam reduced to winter rates

    Flow support for the 2022 Missouri River navigation season ended Nov. 21 as releases were reduced toward winter rates at Gavins Point Dam. “Releases from Gavins Point Dam are being reduced to the winter release of 12,000 cubic feet per second,” said John Remus, Chief of the Missouri River Basin Water Management Division.
  • Gavins Point Dam releases to be reduced to winter release rate in late November

    Six public meetings were held during the week of Oct. 24 to present current hydrologic conditions and the planned operation of the Missouri River mainstem reservoir system for the remainder of 2022. The public meetings were held in six locations in the Missouri River basin and a virtual public meeting was held Nov. 3. The meetings included draft plans for regulating the system in 2023. “We will continue to make releases from Gavins Point Dam to provide flow support at a level 500 cubic feet per second above minimum service, through the end of the navigation flow support season,” said John Remus, chief of the USACE, Missouri River Basin Water Management Division. “The flow support season will end three days early, on Nov. 28, at the mouth of the Missouri River.”
  • Drought conditions worsen in upper Missouri River Basin

    The time for the Fort Peck meeting was updated to 11 a.m. Due to scheduling conflicts, the St. Louis meeting has been canceled. September precipitation was once again below average in the Missouri River Basin. September runoff in the Missouri River Basin above Sioux City, Iowa was 0.6 million acre-feet, 47% of the long-term average. Soil conditions in the upper Missouri River Basin continue to be very dry. According to the Drought Mitigation Center, over 90% of the Missouri River basin is currently experiencing some form of abnormally dry conditions or drought, which is almost a 20% increase from the end of August.
  • Qualification of Hanna Instruments HI9829 for the Environmental Toolkit for Expeditionary Operations

    Abstract: A new, commercially available, field-portable water sensor was evaluated for efficacy during operation and compatibility with current Environmental Toolkit for Expeditionary Operations (ETEO) software. The ETEO provides sensors to Soldiers to rapidly identify and quantify environmental contamination in soil, air, and water at potential new base sites during initial reconnaissance to ensure safety and minimize unnecessary remediation efforts by the Army. In addition to streamlined environmental baseline survey (EBS) reporting, the ETEO can provide rapid analysis of potential environmental contamination to support various Military applications. The Hanna Instruments HI9829 multiparameter water meter was selected following a survey of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) technologies and analyzed by researchers from the US Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) for inclusion in the ETEO design since it can rapidly and accurately measure 14 different properties. Usability tests were conducted with researchers unfamiliar with the technology, and a set of standard operating procedures (SOPs) were developed to operate the device. The software for the tool was successfully integrated into the ETEO system for rapid data analysis. The HI9829 has been demonstrated in various scenarios at ERDC and other locations; including Ft. Leonard Wood, MO, at which several visitors reviewed the operation of the equipment and other ETEO technologies. The Thermo Scientific Gemini, another sensor, which can detect organic constituents in various matrices via Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy was also investigated but eliminated from the ETEO design as it could not adequately detect a Military-relevant compound in an environmental matrix. Regardless, the addition of the HI9829 provides water quality monitoring to the ETEO design and greatly improves its capability to address various applications.
  • Fort Peck fall release reductions delayed

    Planned release reductions from Fort Peck Dam will be delayed until the end of September, due to the ongoing drought and recent extremely dry weather in eastern Montana.
  • Is Mean Discharge Meaningless for Environmental Flow Management?

    PURPOSE: River ecosystems are highly dependent on and responsive to hydrologic variability over multiple time scales (e.g., hours, months, years). Fluctuating river flows present a key challenge to river managers, who must weigh competing demands for freshwater. Environmental flow recommendations and regulations seek to provide management targets balancing socio-economic outcomes with maintenance of ecological integrity. Often, flow management targets are based on average river conditions over temporal windows such as days, months, or years. Here, three case studies of hydrologic variability are presented at each time scale, which demonstrate the potential pitfalls of mean-based environmental flow criteria. Each case study shows that the intent of the environmental flow target is not met when hydrologic variability is considered. While mean discharge is inadequate as a single-minded flow management target, the consequences of mean flow prescriptions can be avoided in environmental flow recommendations. Based on these case studies, a temporal hierarchy of environmental flow thresholds is proposed (e.g., an instantaneous flow target coupled with daily and monthly averages), which would improve the efficacy of these regulations.