ISRB Meeting Held - KXNet - Bismarck/Minot/Williston/Dickinson

ISRB Meeting Held

The international board that manages the Souris-Mouse River system heard reports about the expected runoff in the system this spring.

Jim Olson was in Winnipeg today as the International Souris River Board talked about the flood potential for 2013.

Pretty much near normal. That's what officials from Saskatchewan, North Dakota, Manitoba, and the US Fish and Wildlife Service reported regarding the snowpack in the watershed that went wide with record flooding two years ago.

The International Souris River Board held its spring meeting where the board would have the option of declaring that a "one in ten" year exists - a year where the snow conditions indicated that the runoff would be in the top 10% of all years' runoff. But those reporting on conditions said there is no current indication that we're in for a high water spring along the Mouse River in the US.

ISRB Co-Chairman Russell Boals says the reports are encouraging from a flood potential standpoint.

(Russell Boals - ISRB Co-Chairman) "We are certainly not in a situation where the basin is wet, there's lots of snow on it, lots of water equivalent, that we're stretching the water reservoir capacity to manage any flood. At this time the board is pretty comfortable with the situation."

Minot Public Works Director Dan Jonasson attended the meeting and said it was good news to be able to bring back to a city that's still trying to recover from the 2011 flood.

(Dan Jonasson - Minot Public Works Director) "Exactly we still have a lot of recovering from the last flood, we don't need any more to complicate the efforts."

While the water quantity reports indicate a low chance of flooding, there is at the same time some concern in Canada about having enough water in the Rafferty and Alameda Reservoirs.

(Russell Boals - ISRB Co-Chairman) "We've made a motion to accept a 50-50 sharing of the water, usually that occurs in the lower flow type of situations so each country gets an adequate supply of water from the spring runoff."

All of the experts who made reports today said that while the outlook now is good for avoiding flooding, there is always the chance for late winter and early spring storms that can greatly increase the flood risk. The National Weather Service will pay attention to those issues with its regular flood forecasts - the first of which is due out Thursday. In Winnipeg, Jim Olson, KX News.>