Bureau lowering lake

The Bureau of Reclamation is releasing water from Red Willow Dam to make it easier to inspect and repair a small hole discovered Oct. 19 by maintenance crews.

Engineers are examining the facility, about 11 miles north of McCook, and sand and gravel are being stored at the site for use as filter material and to backfill excavations.

"We currently have crews monitoring and inspecting the dam," Aaron Thompson, reclamation's Nebraska-Kansas area manager.

"To support these investigations, we will be adjusting our operations by making water releases from the reservoir beginning today," he said Friday.

Thompson said that as a precaution, local emergency managers are being kept apprised of the situation, and reclamation has established a Web page at www.usbr.gov /gp/nkao/redwillow/ to provide the public with the most up-to-date information available. Users can register at Reclamation's site to receive automatic e-mail or text updates as new information becomes available.

"We continue to gather data on the situation and monitor the site," Thompson said. "We will keep people informed as we move forward with our investigations and determine a plan of action based on those results. I encourage anyone interested to go to our Web site for the most up-to-date information."

Red Willow Dam, located on Red Willow Creek, is an earthfill embankment with structural height of 126 feet that forms a reservoir of 85,070 acre-feet.

An ungated concrete spillway is located on the right abutment. An outlet works through the base of the dam provides for river and irrigation releases for downstream diversions. The reservoir behind this dam is Hugh Butler Lake.