OMAHA - Rain and snow over much of the Missouri River basin in October produced 136 percent of normal runoff. Soil conditions are unusually moist from North Dakota to Kansas and across Iowa and Missouri.

"The main stem reservoirs have nearly recovered from a decade of drought. Two of the three biggest reservoirs are nearly full, only Fort Peck remains low," said Jody Farhat, Chief of the Water Management office. "Because Fort Peck is the most upstream reservoir, our only option for bringing it back into balance with the others is to maintain the lowest possible releases in the coming months."

Comments on the draft 2009-2010 Annual Operating Plan will be accepted until Nov. 20.

The draft plan shows improved service to all authorized purposes as a result of the dramatic increase in system storage in 2009. Six public meetings were conducted last month to describe the plan, answer questions and accept comments. The draft AOP is available in the Reports and Publications section of the Water Management website.

Adjustments to releases at the big Missouri River dams will be made this month to position the reservoirs for hydropower generation this winter and to capture the runoff from melting snow on the plains and in the mountains next spring.

Releases will be significantly reduced from both Oahe and Big Bend dams this month to continue the annual drawdown of the Fort Randall reservoir. It is lowered about 17 feet each year to ready it to accept hydropower releases over the winter from Big Bend and Oahe.

The current forecast for runoff this year is 33.7 million acre feet (MAF), 136 percent of average. If the forecast verifies, the level of Fort Peck will peak near 2222 feet in December. Oahe crested near 1614 feet in June and Garrison at 1842.6 feet in August. Storage peaked in the system of reservoirs at 57.9 MAF in July. It is currently 55.1 MAF

Flow support for the commercial navigation season will end Nov. 30 at the mouth, just north of St. Louis. This is the first year since 2001 that a full 8-month navigation season has been supported.

If commercial traffic is not scheduled above Kansas City for the remainder of the season, full service target flows will not be supported and the river may be about a foot lower than current levels.

The closing dates for the 2009 navigation season are:

Sioux City, Nov. 22

Omaha, Nov. 24

Nebraska City, Nov. 25

Kansas City, Nov. 27

Mouth, Dec. 1

Gavins Point releases averaged 28,700 cubic per second (cfs) in October. The long-term average is 34,000 cfs. Releases will average 19,600 cfs in November. Releases this winter are expected to average 15,500 cfs and may be adjusted for cold temperatures to allow downstream intakes to remain operational.