By Ben Olson
Albeni Falls Dam on the Pend Oreille River, which controls the level of Lake Pend Oreille. Photo courtesy U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Reader Staff
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released an update on operations at Albeni Falls Dam, stating that Lake Pend Oreille would reach its full summer pool of 2,062.5 feet by Sunday, June 23.
Officials discovered a defective spillway gate at the dam, which required replacement and resulted in limited operations at the dam. That caused the lake level to rise slower than usual.
USACE officials stated that they expected Pend Oreille to reach its full summer by the end of June, but “the exact date may be adjusted due to changing hydrologic conditions throughout the basin.”
The announcement came on June 7, when Albeni Falls Dam also increased its outflow from 28,000 cubic feet per second to 32,000 cfs.
The news followed a joint statement sent to Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works Michael Conner by Sen. Jim Risch and Reps. Mike Crapo and Russ Fulcher, calling for “prompt attention” to address the lake level.
“This situation is extremely concerning to us and we urge the Corps of Engineers to devote all necessary resources to resolve this situation as soon as safely possible,” the Idaho congressional delegation wrote. “While we commend the Corps for ongoing communications with our offices and the public, there are still many uncertainties the Corps should work to address. The timeline for returning the dam to regular operations is chief among them.”
Idaho’s Congress members stressed that the Corps should make the matter its highest priority, stating, “Tens of thousands of people depend on Lake Pend Oreille and the Pend Oreille River for their recreation and livelihoods, not to mention those who live on these bodies of water. If the dam remains at modified spillway operations into next year, these people, as well as the management of the overall Columbia River system, will be severely impacted.”
The Corps stated that inflows have steadily increased and snowpack gradually decreased, leading to the refill rate increasing on Lake Pend Oreille. As of press time, the current lake level was measured at 2,061.04 ft, or 1.46 feet short of full summer pool.
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