Here is another article (from http://www.argusleader.com) on the rising Lake Oahe…
Lake Oahe: ‘Best it’s been in 4 years’
As July 4 nears, Lake Oahe’s water level is 7 feet higher than last year
By Terry Woster
[email protected]
Published: July 3, 2007
PIERRE – Lake Oahe is about seven feet higher than a year ago, and access for anglers and other boaters is the best in four years as the July 4th holiday nears, officials say.
“We’re really back to an access point that’s in decent shape,” Doug Hofer, director of Parks and Recreation for the state Game, Fish and Parks Department said.
With 20 ramp areas open from Oahe Dam just north of Pierre to the North Dakota border on the Missouri River, “It’s about the best it’s been in four years,” Hofer said.
“People should be able to get onto the lake during the holiday and well into the rest of summer.”
The river is probably nearing its high point for the summer, Paul Johnston, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers spokesman from Omaha, said. “The snow melt is done running into the river, and we generally reach the top storage for the season in late June or early July,” he said.
“But the longer we get even the localized rains, the more we’ll be able to keep reduced releases from the dams.”
Releases at Gavins Point, the lowest of six dams on the upper Missouri River, are about 18,000 cubic feet per second, Johnston said.
Normally at this time of year the release rate would be 30,000 feet per second or more, he said.
The water level on Lake Oahe was about 1,583 feet above sea level Wednesday. That’s seven feet higher than at the same period last year.
It’s still well below a normal, long-term operating range of about 1,605 feet, Johnston said. But late-winter forecasts had suggested the lake level would fall through the summer, not rise.
Hofer noted that on March 1, the level of Lake Oahe was five feet lower than it had been at the same time the previous year.
Rising water from runoff and heavy rain and snow along the river basin prompted Hofer to suggest in April that 17 ramps would be in operation during the spring. He anticipated that the lake drawdown after that would leave 12 or 13 ramps in usable condition through the summer.
“If we see equal or see less drop than last year, we’ll be in good shape,” he said then.
But instead of losing ramps, boaters now have access to two that were not available back in 2005: East Whitlock, near Gettysburg, and Lighthouse Pointe, near Pierre.
With 20 ramps open, either for primary service or low-water access, and a lake seven feet higher than a year ago, Hofer said “this has been good in so many ways. It’s really encouraging.”
