Pomme De Terre Dam/lake Update

[MOPanfisher]

Lake elevation as of 1:30 p.m. today (Monday March 21, 2011) is 853.31

Mother Nature gave us another smack on saturday in the form of a 0.7 inch torrential downpour, thankfully it didn't last longer or at the rate it fell the lake would have risen even higher than it has. The work continues at a hurried pace with placement #13 & 14 today, and planned placements #15,16,&17 of concrete on Wednesday. The contractor is still on target to finish on the 31st and begin removal of equipment thereafter, allowing us to release water by April 7th. The 7 days allows the contractor time to remove all equipment including the water bypass system and allow the concrete some time to cure to closer to programmed strength. The big concern right now is the forcast for rain this weekend the big question is how much. With the saturated ground every drop that falls promptly runs off into the watershed drainage. We will be taking all that into consideration however the goal is to complete the work to eliminate the cost of demobilizing and remobilizing the contractor and any possible damage done to the work already completed. I wish I could say for sure that we will make it, but I have stopped washing my car and am considering any and all other ideas anyone has to make the cycle of rain about every 5 days stop and give us 10 days of decent (no rain) weather. Everyone who has a business on or around the lake I have talked to is more than supportive of allowing the lake to rise higher than 855.00 if it means we can complete the work and get the project wrapped up. Currently our forecast for elevation has us reaching about 855.8 by April 7th assuming no additional precipitation. The boat ramps are still useable however the only courtesy dock that is still useable is at the Hermitage side of the Pomme de Terre State Park.

[any and all fishing]

Thank you very much for the update.

[Jbrant]

Thanks for the update - really good information. How long will it take to drop the lake back to normal pool (assuming normal rainfall for spring) if they are allowed to finish working without being interupted?

[Trav]

I would like them to keep the lake up until the first of June...would mean an awesome spawn success. However mother nature seems to be dumping a bunch of rain so the risks might be higher than the reward.

Thanks for the update!!

[MOPanfisher]

I would love to see the lake stay high through april/may, however I can guarantee that as soon as the work is completed there is going to be a lot of water going down river, probably ramp up to about 3500 CFS, which depending upon the lake elevation will drop the lake up to 6" per day, the larger the lake is, the longer it takes to drop. That is not good news for the spawn, considering the normal spring precipitation it could well be June/July before the lake is back to 839.0 mother nature is going to be the big player again. The engineers normally give the lake level forecast based on historical inflows which for Pomme now is about 700 CFS, however the last several weeks we have averaged closer to 2200, so they plugged the numbers into their computers and are predicting a lake elevation of close to 860 by April 5th.. All in all it will not be a good spawn year but the priorities are going to be 1. Dam Safety, 2. Flood Control, 3. everything else, fortunately Pomme had a tremendous number of short crappie last year so hopefully we won't have too big of a hole in the year classes. I'll try to keep everyone updated but target for completion remains March 31st, with a release of water by Aprl 7th.

[Muskie Bob]

I guess Truman and the Lake of the Ozarks need to be lowered a little below normal pool to accept Pomme de Terre's additional release, along with more rain in the forecast. I see where they are releasing around 3200 cfs. If so, I would assume Truman will be raising some when Pomme de Terre releases its water. Perhaps the additional water into Truman will help keep their water level up for the spawn. Just a thought.

Anyway, thanks for posting the updates.

[Trav]

A high Truman is dangerous to boat props...lol....but it will help the spawn there!

[shaker]

A high Truman is dangerous to boat props...lol....but it will help the spawn there!

So is a low Truman.

[MOPanfisher]

The amount of water Pomme can release into Truman is insignificant as far as their level goes. At our normal high Phase II release of 3500 CFS it would take 18 days to add enough water to truman to allow them to generate at full capacity (I think 65000 CFS) for one day. Compared to the water that comes down the osage and Grand they don't even realize we are releasing. As for Truman, high water, low water, normal water, all are dangerous to boat props, and in my case more often transducer mounts. Truman always seems to have a good spawn regardless of water levels??

[Trav]

The amount of water Pomme can release into Truman is insignificant as far as their level goes. At our normal high Phase II release of 3500 CFS it would take 18 days to add enough water to truman to allow them to generate at full capacity (I think 65000 CFS) for one day. Compared to the water that comes down the osage and Grand they don't even realize we are releasing. As for Truman, high water, low water, normal water, all are dangerous to boat props, and in my case more often transducer mounts. Truman always seems to have a good spawn regardless of water levels??

Thanks for the info.