Update on area river flows

Hot Springs County Emergency Management Coordinator Bill Gordon reports the release from Boysen Reservoir was increased back to 3,000 cfs (cubic feet per second) between Sunday night and Monday morning.

While things are flowing well here, the issue is actually in the Miles City, Mont. area, 320 miles from Wind River Canyon.

The Yellowstone River is causing flooding in that area, so drainages up river from Miles City have been asked to cut back their flows to give the Yellowstone time to calm down a bit.

Gordon said this is absolutely not because of anything coming from the mountains in our area, but because of record snows this last winter in the Billings, Mont. area.

In a conference call on Tuesday morning with the Corps of Engineers, the Bureau of Reclamation Command Center in Casper and the Great Plains Bureau of Reclamation Office, they determined a daily conference call would be held until such time as the Yellowstone River goes back to normal.

“They are staying on top of it,” Gordon said. “They are trying whatever they can to ease the pressure downstream, but being cautious about our own river flows.”

Gordon expects the Big Horn River to increase to 4,000 cfs some time this week, which is really a routine flow for this time of year.

Flows into Boysen as of Tuesday morning were at 11,500 cfs. Gordon expects that to decrease to 10,500 cfs by June 1 and 8,000 cfs by June 6. There is still six feet of lake to fill before going into the flood pool, so we are looking good at this point.

“Our season is far from over,” he said, “so I would expect to see flows going from 5,000 cfs to 7,000 cfs before the season is done. It will eventually find its ‘spot’ and even out so I don’t predict seeing the issues we had last year.”

To keep up to date on river flows, you may check the Emergency Management website through the Hot Springs County website or their Facebook page. The Independent Record will also pass along any last minute information via our Facebook page as well as our website.