Throwing Water Away at 150,000 Cubic Feet Per Second

If only there was some way to capture this water and put it in the Pleasanton aquifer, fill it full and then distribute the rest of it around California. One cubic foot of water is equal to 7.48 gallons of water. Do the math. That is 1,122,000 gallons of water every second.

The Oahe Dam in Pierre, South Dakota is releasing water at the rate of 85,000 cubic feet per second. In two weeks, the Army Corps of Engineers will be releasing water from the Oahe Dam at 150,000 cubic feet per second. The Army Corps of Engineers is releasing the water because the dam is full as in six inches below the spillway. There is more water flowing into the Oahe at a higher rate than what the Army Corps of Engineers has been releasing it. The water is coming out of the Rockies in southwestern Montana and there is the heavy rainfall from Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota, along with the heavy snow pack which is all flowing into the Missouri River behind the Oahe Dam.

The release of the water is causing flooding in the city of Pierre, South Dakota and the city of Fort Pierre, South Dakota and all points downstream. The states that are and will be impacted and flooded are Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska and Missouri, where the Missouri River flows into the Mississippi River and continues onto Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, and New Orleans, Louisiana on into the Gulf Coast. These folks in those states will be in water all summer.

Construction started on the Oahe Dam in 1948 and was finished in 1962. The first year it began generating power, and today provides power to North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Minnesota and Montana. President John F. Kennedy dedicated the Oahe Dam August 17, 1962.

The Oahe Dam was built to stop flooding on the Missouri River. Before 1960, each winter the snowmelt and spring rains would flow into the Missouri River and every spring the Missouri River would flood. The flood of 1952 was probably the most significant flood due to the widespread distruction and numbers of displaced people.

The Army Corps of Engineers built several dams along the Missouri River during the forties, fifties and sixties, all to control the Missouri River from rampaging in the spring and early summers. Well here it is fifty years after the Oahe was built and designated as the control dam. At the time the Oahe dam was finished, it was the largest earthen-filled dam in the world. There are a lot of rumors that the dam will not be able to hold back all of that water and will eventually collapse. The Army Corps of Engineers is downplaying the rumors as just that.  The Army Corps of Engineers states that the Oahe Dam is structurally sound and safe, that it will remain so.

In 1908, the Hauser Dam near Helena, Montana collapsed— that same day the Black Eagle Dam downstream near Greatfalls, Montana was dynamited to clear the way for the Hauser dam flash flood waters.

When the Oahe was filled, the Cheyenne River Indain Reservation lost 150,000 acres of prime agriculture land. The old Cheyenne River Agency went under water. The Tribal offices were relocated to Eagle Butte, South Dakota. The Army Corps of Engineers failed to relocate the old Agency cemeteries as they promised the Tribe that they would do. The Standing Rock Indian reservation lost 56,000 acres of its Reservation. The United States Bureau of Reclamation took over the Indian Reservation lands by eminent domain.

Control Click links below for updates and videos of the flood.

http://www.capjournal.com/news/                        

http://www.capjournal.com/video_local/