Governor Culver is asking the federal government to review management plans at the state’s federal reservoirs in Iowa. Iowa has four reservoirs: Coralville, near Iowa City; Rathbun, near Centerville; Red Rock, near Pella and Saylorville, near Des Moines.
The reservoirs are managed by the Army Corps of Engineers and the general operating plans for those reservoirs haven’t been changed, in a major way, for decades. Governor Culver sent President Obama a letter, asking that he include money in next year’s federal budget to finance a review of the flood management plans for each of the four reservoirs.
Culver cited a situation at the Saylorville spillway, where a dam that helps control the release of water from Saylorville Lake “has been rendered inoperative” and can’t be repaired until next year. Culver said a review of the “complex practices” at all four federal reservoirs in Iowa “would be beneficial.”
Culver also asked the Army Corps of Engineers to determine if there are what he called “shorter-term deviations” from established procedures at the reservoices which could “help avert future flooding in Iowa.”
Lake Rathbun is under pressure from heavy rains in south central Iowa. The lake’s within a foot of flood stage and water will flow over the emergency spillway for the first time since the floods of 1993.