Corps of Engineers plans another shortened Missouri season

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By The Associated Press

BISMARCK, N.D. — The Army Corps of Engineers’ proposed operating plan for the Missouri River includes another shortened downstream navigation season to deal with the effects of prolonged drought.

Larry Cieslik, the chief of water management for the corps’ Omaha office said the 2008 navigation season could be shortened by up to two months.

The corps held a public hearing Wednesday night in Bismarck.

Cieslik said upstream storage increased by about 2 million acre-feet this year, and credited the corps’ new master manual for river operation. An acre-foot is the amount of water needed to cover an acre, one foot deep.

“The master manual was revised in 2004 to include more stringent drought conservation measures, and we’ve seen that help,” Cieslik said. “It’s starting to pay dividends as far as gaining water and storage. But it would help if we could get some more snow and rainfall precipitation, of course.”

Cieslik said the 2008 plan also includes a “spring pulse” that would release water from upstream reservoirs to encourage spawning by the endangered pallid sturgeon.