Army Corps outlines spring operations

Lake level on schedule to reach summer pool by mid-June, first replacement gate due 2027

By Ben Olson
Reader Staff

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers held a public meeting May 7 at the Sandpoint Center to provide updates on spring operations and weather outlook, the ongoing spillway gate replacement project and the spring lake refill of Lake Pend Oreille.

In her final public meeting as Seattle District commander before a scheduled redeployment, Col. Kate Sanborn gave those in attendance a brief recap on Albeni Falls Dam operations.

“On the downstream side, it will mostly look like normal operations as it has the last several years,” Sanborn said, pointing out that the lake level should reach 2,060 feet by the end of May and summer pool of 2,062 feet by Friday, June 19. As of press time, the lake elevation was at 2,056.6 feet, with the lake refilling about 0.2 to 0.3 feet per day.

“If we can do it sooner, we will,” she said.

Sanborn also gave updates on the ongoing spillway gate replacement project, which was prompted when defects were found in gate No. 3 in 2024 after it was pulled for routine inspections the year before.

After stripping the gate of multiple layers of paint, steel defects were discovered, which led to concerns that, should a gate fail, it could drop or collapse. Gate failure could lead to a crane operator injury, damage to the crane, spillway gate damage and a subsequent loss of controlling lake levels.

“The way the material would fail would be with no warning,” Sanborn said.

Failure would most likely happen during times when the steel gates are moved open or closed, which led to restricted operations for the past couple of seasons.

“The good news is that gate No. 3 is back in the project thanks to a fiber-reinforced polymer rehabilitation,” Sanborn said, pointing out that the rehabilitated gate also has added sensors and can be moved differently than the other gates, giving the Corps added control. 

The first replacement gates are expected to arrive at Albeni Falls Dam in mid-2027, with subsequent gates arriving in six-month intervals, as confirmed with the Deer Park-based contractor Knight Construction & Supply Co. The dam is expected to remain under restricted operations until the final gates arrive onsite, meaning gates will only move all the way open or closed to limit the amount of stress they’re subjected to.

“I know mid-2027 to get the first gate feels like a long time, and you’re not wrong,” Sanborn said. “But investing the time getting it right, right off the bat, and understanding all the aspects of replacing these gates in all 10 slots is really important.”

National Weather Service Senior Services Hydrologist Joel Atwood then gave updates on temperature and precipitation trends in the region.

Atwood said most of the region has below normal snowpack except for in the higher elevations.

“Above 6,000 feet you have normal snowpack; but, before that elevation, we’re well below normal,” Atwood said.

Because the 24,200-square-mile watershed basin of Lake Pend Oreille depends heavily on mid-level snowpack, Atwood said the water supply is around 83% of normal from April to September, with another model giving a more dire outlook at 76% of normal. All of the data points to a below-normal runoff this summer season, which, coupled with above-normal temperatures over Idaho and western Montana, should point to a warmer and drier summer.

Sanborn then opened up the meeting to questions from the public, which centered on concerns that the lake level wasn’t reaching summer pool sooner.

Sanborn pointed out that despite lower-than-average snowpack in the mountains, if a rain-on-snow event or weather system brought torrential precipitation, the lake still had potential to flood since there are “many lake refills worth of water in the system,” she said.

A Dover Bay resident asked the Army Corps to weigh in on a recent economic impact study released by the Lakes Commission that claimed the local economy lost $43 million in economic activity last year due to inconsistent lake levels and a shorter season than other lakes in the region.

“We haven’t had time to fully digest that study,” Sanborn said. “We didn’t have an opportunity to provide comments on it when it was in the works, which is disappointing.”

Sanborn said the paper was a “single-issue” study that only focused on tourism benefits of holding a summer pool lake elevation for six months.

“The region gets tremendous benefits from the Albeni Falls project year round, throughout the summer, that simply wouldn’t exist without the dam,” Sanborn said, pointing out that the Corps balances dam operations based on a handful of uses, including recreation, hydropower, navigation, flood control and environmental stewardship.

“The economic study doesn’t address effects of a six-month summer pool and what it would be on flood risks, environmental impacts and erosion.”

Another audience member asked why the Corps didn’t take a more active hand in lake level adjustments, such as dropping the level a couple of feet prior to a forecasted storm to mitigate flood risk while also getting to summer pool elevation earlier in the season.

“Operational standards are coordinated with the state and informed by public comment,” Sanborn said. “Water management is a super complicated, multi-factor process. It isn’t like you see a storm coming and drop the lake to prepare for it. This is a water basin the size of West Virginia.”

Sanborn said there are times when even if the gates are fully opened and there is extra storage in the lake, flood conditions could persist.

Sanborn concluded the meeting with “good news” that the Army Corps’ recreation sites around the lake will be fully staffed in 2026, with Riley Creek open on May 9 and Springy Point opening Saturday, May 16, among others. Book sites and learn more by visiting recreation.gov.