Monday June 13, 2022
KDRV —
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) says today federal water managers are changing release and storage schedules at several Pacific Northwest dams.
It says the changes come from a late season atmospheric river that started Thursday as, “Significant amounts of rainfall have fallen across the Columbia River Basin filling reservoirs and rivers.”
USACE says its Northwestern Division is increasing storage behind John Day Dam on the Columbia River about 20 miles upstream from The Dalles. It is helping manage river stages downstream at Vancouver, Washington. It says while most Columbia and lower Snake Rivers’ dams are “run of river” projects, John Day has storage capacity to reducing flooding by the lower Columbia River.
USACE says it “will manage the reservoir up to elevation 268 feet by June 16. This may impact shoreline trails and parks along the John Day reservoir shoreline. Current flood risk management operations are limiting outflows at John Day Dam to 450,000 cubic feet per second (cfs) which is expected to keep the Columbia River at Vancouver just at flood stage.” Forecast river flood stages at Vancouver range from 16 to 16.5 feet.