By Maria Hickey, KWMU
St. Louis – A spring rise on the Missouri River will depend on whether it's a wet winter and spring up north.
Last year the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers canceled plans to release water from upper reservoirs because water levels were not high enough.
Jody Farhat is an engineer in the Corps' Missouri River Basin Water Management Office. She said the reservoir water levels are higher than a year ago, but they'll need to be higher yet before the Corps will undertake a spring rise.
"Our studies are showing that it would take a very good runoff between now and the first of May in order to run the May spring rise, something that we would expect to occur only once every four years," Farhat said.
Farhat said the Corps' final annual operating plan will be out by the end of the year.
That will lay out the criteria for a spring rise, but she said the final decision will be based on the reservoir water levels in the spring.
The rise is meant to help an endangered fish, the pallid sturgeon.