By Dewey Terrill

JC Post

Bill Whitworth, Corps of Engineers Operations Project Manager, said one of the significant factors right now is the amount of water coming down from the north. “Gavin’s Point Dam is releasing a lot of water and has been all summer, and that’s been impacting water coming down the Missouri and how much the Kansas lakes can release.” Whitworth added he expects until the inflows from the north slow down some Milford Lake will probably be holding water until the early fall.

The high water level has impacted recreation. Whitworth noted as a result of underwater hazards boating did drop off a bit. “But, boats have been out in the water consistently, even during the highest period and the fishing has been pretty good actually throughout the summer.”

Whitworth noted a lot of campgrounds were flooded. “The Corps managed campgrounds, we lost 92% of our campsites so things have suffered quite a bit on the recreation side.”

Since the water level has gone down 10 feet a few of the facilities that were on the edge are starting to appear. “The ones that have popped out of the water have required a lot of power washing just to get the grime that’s been cooked on there. But unfortunately we still have another 18 feet to go.” Whitworth said the Corps doesn’t know yet about the damage to a lot of the roads that are flooded, preventing access to campsites that aren’t flooded. As the water level has dropped the Corps has tried to do cleanup work where possible.

Whitworth said he expects some campsites and boat docks will have to be rebuilt. “Gravel is going to get moved around, a lot of the fence posts that are wood have popped out of the ground, we had a steel door from a vault toilet that you think would be secure just popped off of one. As the ground dries out depending on where the layers of clay are we could have some major settling and things may have to be completely replaced. We just don’t know at this point. Things may be better than we think, we just don’t know.”

Where trees near the lake water are concerned, the project manager said some are more water adapted than others, including the bald cypress which can handle a substantial amount of inundation. He noted with others it depends on the species. “Even the ones that are water tolerant probably don’t fare too well when they’ve been under water three, four, five months.” Whitworth said the Corps expects to replace a number of trees with most of the priority for the recreation areas where shade is needed.

Grass seeding, weed control and pick up of debris along the shoreline will be other priorities. Whitworth noted that he expected some volunteer help to help do that work. “But yeah, it’s going to take a bit to recover from this flood event, and we’ll try to get things squared away and operational as soon as we can.”

The outflow from Milford Lake is currently 3,000 cubic feet per second.