Lake level could hit lowest level by Saturday

Paddling a kayak along the south shore of Finley Point Saturday evening, I notice the absence of boats that would typically be snugged up to docks, hoisted onto boat lifts, or pulling skiers or tubers across the still surface of Flathead Lake.

It’s quiet. Especially for a Saturday night in early July. A lone fishing boat floats not far from shore. “Seen any fish?” an angler asks as we slip past.

We’re on our way to my friend’s narrow piece of paradise, a slender peninsula where we’d typically spend a summer afternoon swimming, sipping wine and playing cribbage.

But today, we’re making a scouting trip on kayaks borrowed from a lakefront home a mile away because the marsh we usually paddle across is too shallow to navigate.

In the past weeks, the water level of Flathead Lake has dropped 1.75 feet below full pool of 2,893 feet, and is expected to be a full two feet below by this Saturday. Politicians, including Montana Senators Jon Tester and Steve Daines, Rep. Ryan Zinke and Gov. Greg Gianforte, are all urging the Bureau of Reclamation to release more water from Hungry Horse Reservoir to refill the lake.

Hungry Horse, however, is also depleted after a winter of below normal snowpack in the mountains that feed its main tributary, the South Fork of the Flathead River, which flows out of the Bob Marshall Wilderness. Even as Flathead Lake’s water level began to teeter off full pool by mid-June, Hungry Horse struggled to fill, finally topping out around July 1 at 3,553.8 feet (full pool is 3,560 feet), and dropping by Tuesday to 3,553.47 feet.

And while politicians can, and will, apply pressure, Hungry Horse is part of a sprawling network called the Federal Columbia River Power System. It’s governed by federal law and an ongoing court battle that insists that stream flows not only provide for electricity, recreation and agriculture, but also supply water for endangered bull trout, and further downstream, sturgeon and salmon.

In a letter addressed to Deputy Secretary Tommy Beaudreau at the Department of the Interior last Thursday, Gov. Gianforte asked for “an analysis regarding how much water could be available from the Hungry Horse project, what impact that water will have on water levels in Flathead Lake and the projected timelines associated with possible releases.”

He asked that the information be delivered by Tuesday, July 18, to his natural resources policy advisor, Michael Freeman.

The governor alludes to the complexity of the situation, noting in his letter that “tribes, federal agencies, and other entities such as the Bonneville Power Administration would be affected by this course of action.”

The governor – and other politicians – say Flathead Lake’s historically low water level “presents a significant threat to the economic vitality of the region.”

Yet, any decision to deviate from the basin’s current water management plan could ultimately reside with the Technical Management Team, made up of all the stakeholders in the Columbia River Power System, which encompasses more than 30 hydropower projects in the Northwest.

Season cut short for boat owners

By early this week, tribally owned marinas at KwaTaqNuk Resort in Polson and Big Arm Resort were limiting access. Eric Huffine, who owns Riverside Recreation just south of the Polson bridge, said his rental business has felt the impact, but that those who store boats at his business have been harder hit.

He typically houses between 100 and 120 boats through the winter, but many of those either haven’t been launched or are already back in storage because most boat lifts aren’t calibrated for lower water levels.

“There are shallower bays that just aren’t passable right now,” he said. “We pulled a bunch of customers’ boats already that weren’t even in the lake for two weeks, so their boating season is over.”

As for the dozen jet skis and dozen or so boats he rents, the demand is still strong. It’s just more challenging to launch both boats and jet skis, and for boaters to avoid more exposed water hazards.

Still, Huffine – who is also mayor of Polson – is philosophical about the changes. “Surprisingly I feel like it’s going way smoother than I ever would have expected with the lake as low as it is,” he said of his business.

In the future, property owners may have to design docks and boat lifts that can respond to fluctuating water levels.

“Instead of this being an anomaly, it may be more of the norm going into the future,” he suggests.

Full pool could become a luxury

Downstream, the flow over the tribally owned Seli'š Ksanka Qlispe' Dam is currently at 8,600 cubic feet per second – the minimum flow required by the Federal Energy and Regulatory Commission to protect native fish. At the same time last year, outflows were 26,400 cfs, fueled by record snowpack.

As the last vestiges of this year’s snowpack disappear, the volume of water flowing into the lake from the three forks of the Flathead River continues to decrease. Brian Lipscomb, CEO of Energy Keepers Inc., which manages the dam, said the water volume was 40% of average by the end of June, making it the driest June in the dam’s history.

The most recent prediction from the NOAA Northwest River Forecast Center anticipates flows will drop to 35% of average in July and even lower in August.

Given these predictions, Energy Keepers hopes to hold the dam a two feet below full pool for the remainder of the summer.

“Our prediction is based on the current forecast which has been going down daily,” he said. “We should be getting close to the low point however, so our confidence is high at this point.”

“At the end of the day there is just simply not enough water to do what we have had the luxury of enjoying for several decades – holding us at full pool.”

Lipscomb says power generation at the dam is also “extremely low” and has been for the entire year except during May, when snowpack gushing from the mountains helped fill the lake and turn turbines at the dam.

In the nearly eight years Energy Keepers has managed the dam, “we have not had a neutral year – we’ve either been higher or lower than normal.”

“Those extremes are just growing over time and it’s a product of climate change,” he said. “We can’t afford, as a company managing water like we do, to ignore the facts, and the facts are clear.”