Flooding season is in full swing in Montana and many regions are grappling with floodwaters.
Conrad resident Sondra Habets captured a video of the Sun River Diversion Dam on Saturday that showed water pouring over the dam.
Diversion Dam is located three miles downstream from Gibson Dam. It is a concrete arch structure with a structural height of 132 feet and a crest length of 261 feet.
According to the Bureau of Reclamation, the dam contains 6,500 cubic yards of concrete and is equipped with an overflow crest for a spillway.
The outlet works tunnel runs through the canal wall of the right abutment and the capacity of the outlet works feeding the Pishkun Supply Canal is 1,400 feet per second.
The water flowing over Diversion Dam comes from Gibson Dam, which stands 199 feet high with a crest length of 960 feet. Gibson Dam is able to store 99,000 acre feet of water in its reservoir.
According to the National Park Service, an acre foot is enough to cover one acre a foot deep or 325,851 gallons. A gallon of water weighs 8.33 pounds and an acre foot of water weighs 1,357 tons.
As of May 12, Gibson Reservoir was 87.4 percent full and pool elevation was recorded at 4,714.4 feet. The reservoir flood control pool was zero percent filled.
Gibson Dam is on the Sun River and Sun River is a tributary of the Missouri River.
For more information or a history of Gibson Dam and Reservoir, please visit the National Park Service’s website.
