Heads up!

[fozzype]

If you read the corps policy...the primary mission of the dams are for flood control.  What and how they do it has changed some, obviously.  However there are more factors today than there used to be.  One is minimum flow requirements.  I am not a fan of how the Corps operates anything, but I do understand they are shuffling a lot of different rules they are given by the feds who really dont care how they effect each other.  

[dblades]

10 hours ago, fozzype said:

If you read the corps policy...the primary mission of the dams are for flood control.  What and how they do it has changed some, obviously.  However there are more factors today than there used to be.  One is minimum flow requirements.  I am not a fan of how the Corps operates anything, but I do understand they are shuffling a lot of different rules they are given by the feds who really dont care how they effect each other.  

If they are still claiming flood control as the primary mission, I'd have to say they are failing miserably. 

[Devan S.]

This has been beat to death hundreds of times but flood control does NOT correlate to a lake level. The corps and dam were designed to reduce DOWNSTREAM impacts not upstream lake levels. From a factual basis the dams work and continue to work as intended. The amount of water passed through the dam is considerably less than peak inflows. 

The problem is the user base of the upstream lakes all think "their" use is important and forgets what the actual mission was. 

If flood control was ever the primary or only mission then the lake would be lowered the maximum amount to accept the maximum amount of water. Meaning a constant draw down to 896(the bottom of the gates). Then constant generation to reduce it further until they reached the intake gates. 

Then you guys would be complaining of low water all the time(because at those levels a lot of the infrastructure becomes un-usable and we would see even larger fluctuations in water level. 

 

[vernon]

24 minutes ago, Devan S. said:

This has been beat to death hundreds of times but flood control does NOT correlate to a lake level. The corps and dam were designed to reduce DOWNSTREAM impacts not upstream lake levels. From a factual basis the dams work and continue to work as intended. The amount of water passed through the dam is considerably less than peak inflows. 

The problem is the user base of the upstream lakes all think "their" use is important and forgets what the actual mission was. 

If flood control was ever the primary or only mission then the lake would be lowered the maximum amount to accept the maximum amount of water. Meaning a constant draw down to 896(the bottom of the gates). Then constant generation to reduce it further until they reached the intake gates. 

Then you guys would be complaining of low water all the time(because at those levels a lot of the infrastructure becomes un-usable and we would see even larger fluctuations in water level. 

 

Wish I woulda said that......

[Champ188]

Indeed, well said, Devan. 

[skeeter]

2 hours ago, dblades said:

If they are still claiming flood control as the primary mission, I'd have to say they are failing miserably. 

Wait and see if the lower Mississippi starts flooding and if it's accompanied by incoming flood waters from the Ohio you'll see the Corps' "mission" change to concerns about flooding...especially if the AG interests on either side of the White in the Grand Prairie area of Arkansas start complaining.   Those Cotton and Rice growers have a lot to say about what volume of water gets released from Bull since their land is so flat and the White spreads out for miles once it floods down there.   Meanwhile, more rain events are forecast for later this week and look out if they develop into the "training" events we saw last week.  

[Devan S.]

29 minutes ago, skeeter said:

Wait and see if the lower Mississippi starts flooding and if it's accompanied by incoming flood waters from the Ohio you'll see the Corps' "mission" change to concerns about flooding...especially if the AG interests on either side of the White in the Grand Prairie area of Arkansas start complaining.   Those Cotton and Rice growers have a lot to say about what volume of water gets released from Bull since their land is so flat and the White spreads out for miles once it floods down there.   Meanwhile, more rain events are forecast for later this week and look out if they develop into the "training" events we saw last week.  

Yep and the corps policy calls for more release once we hit a % of flood control pool on all lakes. No doubt we will be there soon. It's all a delicate balancing act between Montana and Appalachia. 

[Champ188]

23 hours ago, skeeter said:

Those Cotton and Rice growers have a lot to say about what volume of water gets released from Bull since their land is so flat and the White spreads out for miles once it floods down there.

You're right, Skeeter. But in the grand scheme of things, I'd rather fish high water than see farmers lose crops to floods. And challenging as fishing may be temporarily, these high water years are really helping recruitment with all of our bass species throughout the White River chain of lakes. 

[vernon]

Just now, Champ188 said:

You're right, Skeeter. But in the grand scheme of things, I'd rather fish high water than see farmers lose crops to floods. And challenging as fishing may be temporarily, these high water years are really helping recruitment with all of our bass species throughout the White River chain of lakes. 

Throw in no tournaments for a month or so and this could be one of the best spawns in a long, long time if it just doesn't turn into some sort of epic event.

Now if I can just stay alive long enough to benefit from the whole deal......

[magicwormman]

7 minutes ago, vernon said:

Throw in no tournaments for a month or so and this could be one of the best spawns in a long, long time if it just doesn't turn into some sort of epic event.

Now if I can just stay alive long enough to benefit from the whole deal......

You're safe Vernon! Only the good die young! You and I might outlast Moses!