MO River Basin May Face Worst This Summer As 7-Year Drought Continues

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''There's a lot of mountains with no snow," Governor Brian Schweitzer of Montana said at a recent meeting of federal, state, and tribal officials from the eight states that make up the Missouri River Basin. This year, he said, looks to be worse than the past six. ''This has been some time in coming, and it's probably going to be around for a little while," he said.

Oahe Reservoir, the giant body of water that stretches for more than 100 miles upstream from the dam at Pierre, dropped to a record low last fall. The surface is down 44 feet from its peak in the late 1990s, when wind would slop water over the top of emergency spillway gates. Now, the water is more than a mile of dry land away from those same tall, steel gates. Where anglers once pursued trophy walleye, hunters now send their dogs in pursuit of pheasant. ''Roughly half of that lake is gone today," said Wayne Nelson-Stastny, a fishery biologist for the South Dakota Department of Game, Fish and Parks.

Utility officials have raised rates for electricity because the hydropower dams on the river are generating two-thirds of their usual capacity. Coal-fired and nuclear plants need cool water from the river to meet environmental regulations and run efficiently. There is serious talk about the potential for power shortages and blackouts. Meanwhile, communities are spending millions of dollars to relocate water-supply pipes that extend into the river. Some boat ramps are closed, and wildlife departments have spent millions to extend and relocate those that remain open to preserve access to still-beautiful lakes. Some agricultural irrigators have given up chasing water and have shut off their pumps. And because not enough water is flowing into the reservoirs in the spring to match demand for power generation and navigation, fish reproduction has suffered.

Some species of fish, especially rainbow smelt, a small finger-sized fish that is an important food source for game fish such as walleye and northern pike, lay their eggs in very shallow water. If the water level goes down, the fish eggs are exposed to air and die. The commercial barge season was cut short by 47 days last year, the most ever, and will probably be shorter this year. Unless the drought breaks in the next year, officials say, it's probably there will be no shipping on the Missouri River in 2006."

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http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2005/03/07/drop_in_big_muddy_roils_nations_midsection/