Flathead Lake's low water levels are avoidable

Flathead Lake is one of the most beautiful places on earth; however, this summer’s low lake levels severely impacted residents, irrigators, fishermen, recreationists, marinas, land and dock owners, and many other businesses directly or indirectly.

The economic impact is huge. So, what happened, and how can it be avoided in the future? 

One thing we can all agree on is that there was a very low snowpack last winter that resulted in record-low inflows into Flathead Lake. Despite low snowpack and other early strong indications of a drought year, the SKQ Dam (formerly Kerr Dam) drought management plan was not implemented by Energy Keepers, the current operator of the dam. Under the drought management plan, outflows through the SKQ dam could have been reduced significantly during the runoff period.