Valley City, ND (KCSi-T.V. News ) -- The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers St. Paul District representatives met on Tuesday March 2nd, at a packed City Hall in Valley City. They included Chief Water Management,and Hydrology Ferris Chamberlin, Hydrologist Liz Nelson, and Tim Bertschi Red River of the North Flood Engineer. A number of Valley City and Barnes County entities were represented at the meeting, along with officials from Lisbon. Baldhill Dam Resource Manager Rich Schueneman hosted the presentation. MORE STORY BELOW VIDEO. . .
The meeting started with a power point presentation by Ferris Chamberlin, with a review of last year’s flood event. Included was a time table of spring ’09 events in the upper basin, including potholes and other watershed areas, including snow depth, freezing and thawing and the resultant runoff. In 2009, when the Sheyenne reached a record level of 20.65 feet.
Liz Nelson gave a flood outlook report concerning Lake Ashtabula.
More snow-water is present as of March 1st this year than a year ago.
The National Weather Service Forecast for this spring shows a similar senario to last year.
This Friday the Weather Service will have updated numbers, which will not include an expected snowfall this weekend. She said the forecast shows a 15 percent chance of releasing more water from Baldhill Dam, than last year, above a release of 6,500 cfs. She pointed out a significant rain event will move the numbers higher, as it did in 2009. It’s not expected that breaking up river ice would have significant impact on melting.
Schueneman says, on Tuesday (Mar 2nd) the current pool level at Lake Ashtabula was 1,258.92 feet,due to the present drawdown. The operations plan requires 1,257 feet. The present Baldhill Dam water release is 200-cfs, which has been the release the past 4 weeks.
There is 29 inches of ice cover, compared to 36 inches in 2009, 26 inches of frost cover, 20 inches of snow cover with 4 and a half inches of snow/water equivalent.
The Sheyenne at Lisbon is expected to be more effected by local snowpack, that upstream water releases. There currently is a 55 percent chance of Lisbon seeing river levels higher than the 2009 record event.
He says over the next few weeks, additional precipitation, in the form of snow or rain, plus the rate of snow melt, creating runoff, and the amount of frost in the ground will have an impact on flooding. He said last year’s event, makes everybody more prepared to handle this spring’s event.
The 50 minute meeting was shown live on CSi Cable 68 - Full REPLAY with power point starts Wed Mar 3 on CSi 58 - REPLAY XTRA - MARCH 9 SHOWING ON CSi 10.
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