Heavy rains north of Milford Lake over the weekend allowed the lake to rise about a foot, bringing the lakes elevation to just half a foot under normal conservation levels.

RJ Harms, Corps of Engineers Project Manager at Milford Lake explained that the lake was previously about a foot and a half low prior to this past weekends rain.

“Normal levels are 1144.4 and we’re about a half foot low, so we’re about 1143.9 right now,” Harms said.

Harms estimated that the inflow from the Republican River was close to 10,000 cfs.

There are two benefit to having a high inflow, it helps maintain the lakes elevation levels, and it also can bring the lakes turbidity levels up which will cloud the water and help the lakes blue green algae problems later this summer.

Milford Lake was exceptionally clear this year and clear water can speed up the growth of blue green algae.

“If we can have some water come into the lake from downstream, that should bring some turbidity in.”

It remains unclear how intense blue green algae will be at the lake this summer, but there are new regulations in place from the KDHE on how to handle algae blooms which are expected to be better than years past.