Lake elevations

[MOPanfisher]

Vernon I had to laugh, not the first time that has happened.  Plain old politics as usual.  Praise from a politician is usually a prelude to public/media bashing of same.

[vernon]

Another perspective just up the road.

Why Weren’t Floodgates Opened Sooner? Dam Operator Explains

[Basfis]

Great read Vernon. Too often the easements are forgotten and they were put in place for a reason. Could explain the sadness but lack of anger the folks on  taneycomo display in interviews. 

Having owned above Truman on the Osage those flood easements are binding and watched. The farmers up that way are real gamblers.

[Bassmod]

If the Mississippi gets too much water from all the rain from the Ohio, Illinois, and so on from the east, will they hold back bull shoals and then table rock? Thought that have done this in the past but I may be mistaking. 

[abkeenan]

These sentiments by RPS, Vernon and others are completely false. Everyone knows that Johnny Morris makes any and all decisions regarding the COE and it's flood control plans. He does it from behind a green curtain and I have a pic of this past weeks proceedings. The following shot was sent to me from a highly credible source which I will keep anonymous. It is 100% legit and has not been altered, tampered with or poorly photo-shopped in any way.

[moguy1973]

Beaver Bridge went under. 

[fishinwrench]

What is the actual growing season of cotton and rice ?   Does a flood this early really mean a loss of crops for the year ?

[gitnby]

4 hours ago, rps said:

I have been friends with Larry Yadon, the attorney for the power transmission part of the White River Corps of Engineers unit, for years. From him I have learned a bit of the operations workings. It is never so easy that a single declaration can make sense of things. I will share what I have learned in hopes most of you understand the complexity involved. If any who understand more than I do see an error, please feel free to jump in a correct me. If Larry reads this (I doubt it) I hope he forgives any errors.

The operations are limited by several factors. First, and foremost, Congress directed an operations priority when they funded the building of the dams and when they fund the maintenance and operations budget. The first priority on the list is flood control. The second is power generation. Recreation and fishing and conservation are not even on the list.

The next factor is that flood control includes more than the properties directly below the dam. Their computations include the value of cotton and rice crops far down stream in the Arkansas delta. The value of those crops is many tens of millions of dollars.

A third factor is that Congress expects and requires the power generation to create an income stream to support the maintenance and upkeep of the dams and amortize the original expenditure.

To deal with this set of expectations, the dam operations people enter contracts with the electric cooperatives to provide income streams. The contracts provide that when the flood pool is between two numbers, for example 910 and 925 feet on Table Rock (those are example numbers and not the real contract numbers), the electric companies shall control the discharge from the lakes, both as to volume and as to time of day. That contract power has limits. The Corps may over-ride the electric when flood control factors require. In addition the Corps may intervene when facing other factors such as drowning searches and also for minimum flow purposes.

The electric generation group knows power generated in the summer, when demand for air conditioning is high, is worth considerably more in dollars than generation in the winter. Therefore, they want to conserve water for summer generation. Thus, when the rains of several weeks ago jumped Table Rock from 910 to 918, no urgent move to make room for Spring rain happened.

This arrangement also explains the Corps desire to use "rain on the ground" for planning rather than anticipatory modeling - the latter gets in the way of their money making contract. When that factor combines with the traditional mind set that the cotton and rice farmer crops must be protected, you can begin to see the pattern for the behavior over the last three floods.

Can this and will this change? Yes, it could. However that change would require a Congressional change to the priorities set by law. Given the current make up of the Congress and executive branch, I would suggest you do not hold your breath.

see highlighted text above

 

Do we know if that happened here?

[Ellros]

Well a small good sign...  lake level has been slowwwllllly droppping for the past few hours.   Not that it may matter much...  more rain coming Wednesday.

[rps]

7 hours ago, gitnby said:

see highlighted text above

 

Do we know if that happened here?

We know the contracts exist. I do not know the current magic numbers or exactly when the Corps exercised its flood control over-ride. They have, of course, and my guess is the continuous discharge for several days before the last  round was flood control based. My point is that until the priorities are altered to de-emphasize electrical generation, the planning will remain "on the ground" and not disaster modeling.