Managers confident Flathead Lake will fully fill, but late summer could pose challenges
Swan Lake Pike
Though the Flathead River Basin currently sits about 1.5 million acre-feet of water below its normal levels for the end of May, a spokesperson for the company that owns the Seli’š Ksanka Qlispe’ Dam told lawmakers Monday the company is confident that Flathead Lake will fill to full pool at least to start the summer.
The Water Policy Interim Committee heard from Zach Hoylman, the assistant state climatologist, on current conditions in the Flathead and how they compare to last year, while Energy Keepers spokesperson Robert McDonald discussed the outlook for the season and the changes the company made during the past two months to try to stave off another year of record-low lake levels.
Last year’s snowpack in the Flathead River Basin peaked the first week of April at just more than 24 inches of snow-water equivalent about a week earlier than normal and stayed there for about two weeks.
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