MANHATTAN — Rising waters at Tuttle Creek Reservoir have been a concern for many in the region since a wet March inundated the lake with its third highest readings since 1973.
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Operation Project Manager Brian McNulty informed a joint meeting of Manhattan, Riley and Pottawatomie county officials that the lake is currently in a Phase II zone of operations for flood control.
Part of the reason water hasn’t been released from the lake so far is due to high water levels along the Missouri River, especially near Waverly, Missouri, about 73 river miles east of Kansas City. The target release at Waverly on April 5 went from 90,000 cubic feet per second to 130,000 cubic feet per second, which McNulty says is good news.
As of Thursday, the Missouri River at Waverly was just under 22 feet and scheduled to continue dropping off over the next 10 days. If that trend continues, McNulty says they could potentially release some water as soon as next week.
McNulty says adding to the pressures on the Missouri River has been flooding in the Omaha district which was one of the hardest hit areas of the March flooding.
Because Tuttle Creek Lake is holding more in its reservoir than Milford or Perry Lake, it likely will continue to have priority on releasing water into the month of May. Currently 51.8 percent of its flood pool is filled.
As of Thursday, the latest elevation was 1,116.08 feet with an inflow of 1,400 cubic feet per second and outflow of 160 cubic feet per second. McNulty says the lake still has roughly 21 feet to go before it reaches the levels of 1993 when the lake reached the top of the gates. At this point there is no concern of the lake reaching that level.
Daily information at Tuttle Creek Reservoir can be found here: Kansas City District – Tuttle Creek Lake
