POLSON — Flathead Lake will be seeing lower water levels this summer; two feet lower than normal by July and up to three feet lower than normal by August.
Energy Keepers Inc. officials are citing an unusually hot and dry spring for the lower levels.
“What's causing the problem today is lack of water and our requirements to operate the facility in certain ways to protect downstream interests, primarily fisheries in the lower river,” Energy Keepers Inc. Chief Executive Officer Brian Lipscomb told MTN.
Watch to learn more about what determines the water levels on Flathead Lake:
According to the National Weather Service, the end of May to the beginning of June has been the hottest and driest on record for this timeframe, creating an early runoff season that’s now straining the amount of water flowing into Flahead Lake.
The full peak of the lake this year is expected to reach a maximum of 2,891.9 feet by June 15.
“I want to say 25 to so percent reduction in the amount of water we have coming into Flathead Lake as far as what we had forecasted on Memorial Day weekend versus what we have forecasted today for the June, July and August time frame,” said Lipscomb.
Energy Keepers Inc. has control over the top ten feet of the lake, as determined by their license under the Federal Power Act, that they have to operate the dam.
“It authorizes us to fill the lake and use that top 10 feet to create 1.2 million acre feet of storage to use to generate power. That's what the license authorizes us to do," Lipscomb explained. "Doesn't mandate us to do that, but it authorizes us to. And then in addition, it puts conditions on that. One condition is minimum in-stream flows in the lower river."
Lipscomb acknowledges that there may be a hit in the number of tourists heading to the lake this year due to the lower water levels.
“I've heard folks are concerned about navigating around the shores of the lake. And yeah, there's rocks at every elevation, you know, low pool to full pool. You got to watch where you're going. I tell people, we live in the Rocky Mountains. There's rocks in that lake. I've hit some. And so I've had a few props get replaced on my boat. So I know what that's all about,” said Lipscomb.
Western Montana has been experiencing a drought for three years now and with that, Lipscomb says that the need to adjust to a changing climate is the new reality, whether that means less water heading into the lake or too much.
“You got to be resilient. You got to learn how to adjust and live with these different conditions here in Western Montana. All of us, not only from a lake level perspective, you know, fire, drought, just the dryness that we're not used to,” said Lipscomb.
“So that's the biggest takeaway is how fast things have changed for us here in Western Montana. You know, our snowpack went from about normal in May and end of May. We were about normal as we went through Labor or Memorial Day weekend. Now we're 40 percent of average,” he continued.
The levels in Flathead Lake may change throughout the summer depending on the weather.
