After not making any releases for the past few days due to flooding down stream in Missouri, the Corps of Engineers at Milford Lake are once again releasing water.

RJ Harms, Corps of Engineers Project Operations Manager at Milford Lake, explained that he got the phone call Thursday morning to begin releases of 400 cfs, with possibilities of increasing to 2,000 cfs by Monday.

“The reason we can do that is, it takes about a week or so for our water to make it all the way to St. Louis,” said Harms. “So any water that we start releasing today will take about a week to travel down the Kansas (River), and into the Missouri River. That usually leaves enough time for some of that water to get out of there and make room for it.”

Missouri is experiencing extensive flooding along the Mississippi and Meramec Rivers due to days of have rain.

The Corps is attempting to get Milford Lake down to their targeted winter elevation of approximately two feet low before any significant ice formation occurs. Harms said that they will be watching the marinas and docks, and if any thick ice does begin to form around those areas the Corps will shut off its releases.