Corps to Conduct Missouri River Pulse

OMAHA – A small pulse of water will be put into the Missouri River beginning Mar. 21 to benefit the endangered pallid sturgeon, the Army Corps of Engineers announced today. The pulse complies with the requirements of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s 2003 Amended Biological Opinion. Previous pulses were conducted in May 2006 and March 2008.

The pulse will coincide with the annual increase in releases from Gavins Point Dam, near Yankton, S.D., to provide flows for commercial navigation and other downstream uses from Sioux City, Iowa, to the Mississippi River. This will be the seventh consecutive year only minimum navigation flows will be supported because of drought impacts on upstream reservoirs.

Releases will be increased by an additional 4,500 cubic feet per second for two days beginning Saturday. They will be gradually decreased beginning Monday, returning to minimum navigation flows by late next week. With the pulse, the releases will still be less than the normal full service navigation flows. River levels are expected to rise 1.5 feet at Sioux City and Omaha and less than half a foot at Hermann, Mo.

“We have safeguards in place that reduce or eliminate the pulse if high downstream flow is occurring,” said Larry Cieslik, Chief of the Water Management office here. “These safeguards are designed to ensure that the pulse does not cause downstream flooding.” The Corps acquires data from hundreds of stream gauges providing near-real time information via satellite that is combined with forecasts from the National Weather Service to develop the Corps’ daily river forecast.

The net affect of the releases for the pulse on the amount of water stored Oahe, Garrison and Fort Peck is 0.1 feet.

Monitoring teams will be on the river over the next several weeks to collect data on physical and biological responses to the pulse.

Background information on the pulse along with daily update slides is available under the "New" image at: http://www.nwd-mr.usace.army.mil/rcc/