POLSON - The water on Flathead Lake is reaching historic lows and dam operators are predicting this year is the beginning of a pattern of ever-decreasing water levels in the Flathead River Basin.
According to data from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) recorded on June 28, 2023, the water surface level on Flathead Lake had reached an all-time low for that time of the season at 2,892.1 feet, 9 inches below the dam-controlled full pool level.
“There is not a reservoir in the west right now that is able to be at full pool, not a single one,” said Brian Lipscomb, CEO of the Energy Keepers, a tribally-owned company of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes tasked with managing the outflow of water from Flathead Lake at the Se̓liš Ksanka Qĺispe̓ (SKQ) Dam southwest of Polson.
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Since taking over management of the dam in 2015, Energy Keepers have documented some of the wettest and driest years on record for Flathead Lake.
But according to Lipscomb, a colder-than-average winter combined with limited snowpack meant that the flood control requirements managed at the Reservoir Control Center in Portland, Ore. by the Army Corps of Engineers had to change to achieve refill.
“Normally we have to go to minimum pool on April 15," Lipscomb said. "We started in the first week of March — a full six weeks early."
Starting on June 3, operators at the SKQ Dam began decreasing lake outflow to the lower Flathead River to the minimum streamflow and will continue to operate at minimum allowable levels until the lake level stabilizes.
According to Lipscomb, minimum outflow levels are designated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and are based on flood risk management, power generation requirements, and biological needs to support aquatic life in river systems.
Doing so allowed the water to be less than a foot below the full pool mark and brought the facility to a minimum flow for continued operation.
But Lipscomb says that climatologists have advised him that the decreasing water levels are the result of abnormal weather patterns. “We’re going into an El Niño which is currently forecasted…as the hottest and driest El Niño on record.”
According to the National Weather Service, El Niño refers to a naturally occurring climate pattern associated with warming ocean surface temperatures in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean, which can significantly influence weather patterns worldwide.
“They (climatologists) are seeing ocean temperatures now that are higher than any they have ever measured, so we are just seeing the beginning of these cycles.”
