OK, so if this is intended to be informational, let me chime in here real quick on the status of the Missouri River.
Here's the hydrograph for Bismarck since March 1st of this year.
Despite being able to keep the Bis/Man area below Flood Stage, you can see they've been running the river pretty high for most of the summer and up to now. While below FS, this does not mean it has been without impacts to people.
The Corps is certainly NOT going to "drain Sakakawea". They are trying to evacuate the stored flood waters and get the entire system down to its 16.X million ac-ft of flood storage, just like they do every year and cause as few of problems doing so as possible. Currently, Sakakawea's share of that puts it at about 1837.5 MSL.
One point to consider here is that if, and that's a big IF, the Corps were to lower the entire M.R. system on a regular basis...then they would not have 16.X million ac-ft of water they needed to get rid of each year, they would have something larger to discharge through the system. In the case of the above hydrograph, the big question you have to answer is where do you squeeze that extra water into the river...knowing there are already impacts at levels seen this year?
If you do it in the months of April and May, you are piling even more water onto what were the flooded areas of SD, IA, NE, MO, etc. I don't think they necessarily would appreciate that. If you did it from July to Oct, that means we would have had to have seen higher water levels here in the ND section of the river, including BisMan. Those that were at the Bismarck meeting the other night already have an idea of some of the impacts felt. If you start getting into the 60,000 cfs range, now you are flirting with Flood Stage here in Bismarck and it's not just groundwater and pastures getting wet, it will be people's yards and homes. If you think we can handle the extra water in the river from now going forward, well...there's this thing called winter that gives riverfront residents a lot of heartburn when they see the river jump up once the ice starts forming a continuous sheet here in the Bismarck area.
So again, I ask the question...who do you want to throw under the bus when it comes to seeing higher water on the river? Is it the downstream people, or your friends and neighbors here in Bismarck/Mandan?
A quick disclaimer here: I do not, in any way, shape, or form have a horse in this race, nor do I have any of the headaches that the Corps has in having to make these tough decisions. I merely work in advertising.
