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Mid-Missouri’s two representatives in Congress said the Army Corps of Engineers has not mismanaged the flow of water from up-river, answering concerns citizens expressed.

Vicki Hartzler and Blaine Luektemeyer both visited Jefferson City on Monday, along with the Corp’s Regional Commander.

The Gavin’s Point Dam on the Nebraska-South Dakota border continued to dump water at an unprecedented rate on Monday. 150,000 cubic feet of water per second rushed through the open dam. The Corps of Engineers are desperately trying to catch up to the in-flow of water from melting snow, unseasonal rains and overflow from three reservoirs upstream.

Hartzler and Luetkemeyer brought in the Corp’s regional commander from Kansas City to answer questions from local stakeholders, including a number of bottomland farmers now threatened with a season of potential ruin.

They wanted to know why the Corps held the release at Gavin’s Point at just 21,000 cubic feet per second from January through the end of April.

“How did you arrive at 21,000 when you knew that you had a much larger snowpack,” said Terry Hilgedick, a Hartsburg bottomland farmer.

General John McMahon explained how the lakes further upriver routinely hold most of the water. He told the audience every calculation had suggested those reservoirs could contain the runoff from the record snowpack.

“In the month of May, we had a year’s worth of rain in the states of Montana, Wyoming, North and South Dakota which fundamentally filled up the reservoir space that we had reserved for snow melt,” McMahon said.

So now there is no choice but to dump water at a rate that will not drop anytime soon and could go even higher.

“I dread the thought, butw e could have to do it. It’s a real possibility,” McMahon said.

After the meeting, the delegation visited the Jefferson City riverfront where the really high water, water that threatens the top of the levee, is still more than a week away.

“I’m just hopeful that we’ll be able to dodge the bullet here in Mid-Missouri and we’ll be able to get this water down the river without any major damage,” Hartzler said.

Luetkemeyer and Hartzler both agreed that there was not mismanagement of the dams.

“Ya know, these guys are dealing with a truly abnormal situation that the manual did not anticipate, that nobody anticipated,” Luetkemeyer said.

McMahon said the Corps is still holding at its early prediction for water in Mid-Missouri of 27-35 feet. He also conceded that next year, the Corps may have reevaluate the standards used for flood management.

Local officials will answer questions from the public at City Hall on Thursday, between 4 and 6 p.m.