James River Reservoirs To See Higher Releases Downstream

With the US Army Corps of Engineers stinging from their handling of releases on the Missouri River, officials are now considering how to deal with heavy rain that fell in the James River basin this past weekend. Releases from the Jamestown and Pipestem Reservoirs will be increased above 1800 cubic feet per second over the next several days. Thunderstorms Friday brought up to four inches of rain to some locations. That is on top of up to eight inches of above normal rainfall for the area in the last 30 days. The extra water is expected to push the North Dakota Reservoirs above the peak pool elevations from this spring. Currently releases at Jamestown and Pipestem are 1200 and 600 c-f-s. At 10:30 this morning, 100 more c-f-s will be released from Jamestown. Releases between the two reservoirs could go as high as 2400 c-f-s to create storage for snow melt this winter