POLSON - Flathead Lake is seeing record low levels and it's even caught the eye of some of Montana's congressional leaders.
Energy Keepers, the company that manages SKQ Dam, says the lowest level this summer is anticipated to be 18” below full pool.
To put this into perspective, Energy Keepers says the water flowing in the Flathead River near Polson was 50,000 cubic feet per second on June 28, 2022. But at its measurement on Thursday a year to the day, it was at 12,700 cubic feet per second.
Energy Keepers reports that the warm and rainy month of May depleted the snowpack in the northern reaches of the Flathead Basin. That means the snowpack that would normally support continued high flows through June was all but gone at the end of May.
That caused the lake's elevation to start dropping last week, and it's expected to continue to drop until mid-July which will impact boaters.
"Recreation people will get affected the most, but you know the daily boaters, I think outside of that, there's the dam controlling what they can with the water they're getting and so they're trying to make sure that people are getting the water down the way,” explained Brett Owen, who works at Flathead Boat Company. “I think you'll see...having to pull boats a little early, make sure they're getting them off their slip."
U.S. Representative Ryan Zinke and U.S. Senator Steve Daines released a statement Thursday calling on the Bureau of Reclamation to increase the flow from Hungry Horse to stabilize the Flathead's water levels.
“There’s too much at stake economically, environmentally, and for public safety for the federal government to ignore this oncoming crisis,” Zinke said. “Luckily, Reclamation has the authority, and precedence has been set, to increase flow from Hungry Horse Reservoir to stabilize Flathead Lake levels. I’m urging the commissioner to use that authority and take action now to prevent irreversible damage to the greater Flathead Lake community.”
