Flood Gates At BS Dam to Open Today

This is from our local paper the Baxter Bulletin:

“The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will open three or four floodgates about a foot each at Bull Shoals Dam today, in addition to flows from all eight generators in the dam, according to Tracy Fancher, the Corps’ operations manager for Mountain Home Field Project Office.

The flow from Bull Shoals Dam will exceed 30,000 cubic feet per second, or the equivalent of a 10-generator flow. Those waters will combine with the other flow of more than 10,000 cfs at the confluence of the North Fork and White rivers, Fancher said. The dams normally produce flows of about 24,000 cfs from Bull Shoals and 6,700 cfs from Norfork when generating at maximum capacity.”

To answer the comment below:

This is a bit of an unfortunate event in that it will push spawning fish off redds and more than likely destroy existing ones.  This much water will push some gravel around for sure.  It is however necessary to avoid the floods of last year in the event we get a ton of rain this winter and early spring.

Read the article here:  http://www.baxterbulletin.com/article/20091202/NEWS01/912020324/-1/NLETTER01/Water-releases-continue?source=nletter-news

One Reply to “Flood Gates At BS Dam to Open Today”

  1. That is really sad about the spawn, but at least that should scrub the didymo off the rocks around the dam. What is it going to do to all the habitat they put in up there this year?

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