Corps of Engineers to use flood pool

Hot Springs County Emergency Coordinator Bill Gordon recently spoke with Art Hill at the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) in Casper Monday morning. In response to increasing inflows to Boysen they have ordered release be increased to 3,500 cubic feet per second (cfs) Monday and likely 4,000 cfs later this week. Previous years have seen flows of up to 9,000.

Also, due to the second worst flooding in history, all the way to the Gulf of Mexico, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) has asked all USBR dams to utilize some of their flood pool in order to lessen flows downstream. “We have been into the flood pool at Boysen many times,” Gordon stated. “That is why there is a flood pool. Flood control. It is a normal operation.”

The elevation of Boysen is presently 4,722 feet. The elevation of the lake when it is full is 4,725 feet. Above that there is seven feet of flood pool. The expectation is that the elevation of the lake will be raised to 4,727.5 feet. All of this activity is routine.

However, according to Gordon the monkey wrench is that when the water level goes into the flood pool at any USBR lake, control is taken over by the Corps of Engineers. So it will be USACE decision as to how quickly Boysen is lowered back out of the flood pool. And that will determine how much water we see in the river later this summer.

Hill is very aware about recreation downriver of Boysen, Gordon stated. His hope is that when this procedure is over and flooding is reduced downriver he will be able to bring Boysen down to 4,725 feet without sudden large release flows from Boysen.

Gordon will be sending situation reports weekly, unless changes dictate otherwise.

The big sticking point every year is to ensure the lake is filled while providing irrigation water through summer. If too much water is released and the lake isn’t filled it can make irrigators unhappy for next year. If a lot of water is released, then a lot comes in and flows have to be largely increased, it makes everyone else upset.

Regarding regular operation of Boysen, there have been no alarm whistles or concern from the USBR or National Weather Service, Gordon said, and things are going as planned. The rains, he noted, were significant and great for the environment, but not really game changers for the operation of Boysen.

Hot Springs County, Gordon further explained, is different than any other county downriver. We have a unique situation, in that we’re about 16 miles from the dam, and in the area between we have Buffalo Creek as a single tributary. Even though we get four inches of rain, the river level doesn’t go up through town.

In comparison, Worland has multiple tributaries including Kirby Creek, Cottonwood, Owl Creek and Gooseberry. As a result, the river is higher. Onward to Basin and Greybull, it’s even higher.

The snows have been coming out nicely, Gordon said, and one of these days it will start coming harder. The streams in the county are about done, though the soils are full of moisture so big thunderstorms could cause some more to come down.