Spillway releases

[MNtransplant]

Does all this talk about spillway releases mean floodgates opening? Or is a spillway release something totally different?

Will all of the trophy area be closed to the public?

[Phil Lilley]

I keep getting calls from friends wanting to know if I need help evacuating...

I told them I don't think it's that bad.  Actually, I'm not sure if it's bad at all.

This "event" is so different than the other "floods" we've had.  And this isn't a flood, not yet.  Not even close.  Flash floods, yes.  We've had 2 in 2 days locally - north of town.  Almost the exact some spot.  Crazy.

But most of this rain has fallen, again, east of Table Rock although some fell around Beaver and some in Table Rock.  But more local rain and not widespread.  I've been looking at the Kings, James, the White above Beaver and none are rising that much.

I just don't see anything changing at Beaver or Table Rock.  But the Corps may surprise us all.

If they run, they don't have to spill over the top at Table Rock.  They can run 15,000 through the turbines and that could be enough to keep up with the inflow.  Beaver may move some water... but I don't see it rising.

But there's plenty of rain in the forecast... one of the storms will put someone over - either Beaver or Table Rock.  Then they will release.

Flood gates, fishing wise, would be much better than 4 full units.  It would bring shad in and warmer water.  Trout will go nuts.  But there will be heavy flows - no dock fishing or very little fishing off the banks.  The flow won't be dangerous... I would consider anything over 25,000 cfs too high to send our rental boats out.  I would go though.  Over 30k - hummm may be not.  But I'm not going to say for sure.

Unless the rain just stops, we're going to see something soon.  Full generation and/or spill gates.  There's just too much water in the system.  But flooding... where our guests would be asked to leave... I don't see that at all.  The storms are moving through too fast.

[Travis Swift]

I think the flooding down stream will have them release less than other events. Even if they open the gates I don't think we will see super high amounts? Maybe something along the lines of what they ran a couple months ago, 5 gates like they did before and maybe just run it for a long time bringing it down slowly? Just my thoughts.  Hopes too cause I'm headed down Friday for a week so I would love some flood gates with a fishable amount of water for a week. 

[snagged in outlet 3]

24 minutes ago, Travis Swift said:

I think the flooding down stream will have them release less than other events. Even if they open the gates I don't think we will see super high amounts? Maybe something along the lines of what they ran a couple months ago, 5 gates like they did before and maybe just run it for a long time bringing it down slowly? Just my thoughts.  Hopes too cause I'm headed down Friday for a week so I would love some flood gates with a fishable amount of water for a week. 

Let me know what you experience.  I’ll be there June 6 for the week.  

[MNtransplant]

1 hour ago, Phil Lilley said:

I keep getting calls from friends wanting to know if I need help evacuating...

I told them I don't think it's that bad.  Actually, I'm not sure if it's bad at all.

This "event" is so different than the other "floods" we've had.  And this isn't a flood, not yet.  Not even close.  Flash floods, yes.  We've had 2 in 2 days locally - north of town.  Almost the exact some spot.  Crazy.

But most of this rain has fallen, again, east of Table Rock although some fell around Beaver and some in Table Rock.  But more local rain and not widespread.  I've been looking at the Kings, James, the White above Beaver and none are rising that much.

I just don't see anything changing at Beaver or Table Rock.  But the Corps may surprise us all.

If they run, they don't have to spill over the top at Table Rock.  They can run 15,000 through the turbines and that could be enough to keep up with the inflow.  Beaver may move some water... but I don't see it rising.

But there's plenty of rain in the forecast... one of the storms will put someone over - either Beaver or Table Rock.  Then they will release.

Flood gates, fishing wise, would be much better than 4 full units.  It would bring shad in and warmer water.  Trout will go nuts.  But there will be heavy flows - no dock fishing or very little fishing off the banks.  The flow won't be dangerous... I would consider anything over 25,000 cfs too high to send our rental boats out.  I would go though.  Over 30k - hummm may be not.  But I'm not going to say for sure.

Unless the rain just stops, we're going to see something soon.  Full generation and/or spill gates.  There's just too much water in the system.  But flooding... where our guests would be asked to leave... I don't see that at all.  The storms are moving through too fast.

Thanks for the insight Phil, im headed down to bank fish tomorrow evening and hoping for similar results to my past two outings. The fishing on Taneycomo has been outstanding!

[MickinMO]

One good thing is that there hasn't been a 5-7 inch rain that has covered the entire basin at one time. As mentioned above, there has been some glancing blows, but it's not been a total non-stop deluge. So, it seems they could manage this situation with reasonable flows. Here's to praying for 20k cfs or less out of Table Rock and those downstream in Arkansas who have to deal with the water from all four lakes (5 technically). Pattern appears to turn drier next week.

https://www.swl.usace.army.mil/Media/News-Releases/Article/2196761/corps-to-make-spillway-releases-from-white-river-dams/