USACE will begin water releases at Falls Lake

 WILMINGTON, N.C. –The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Wilmington District will begin releases at Falls Lake on Saturday, 29 April. Recent rain has pushed lake levels at Falls Lake up nearly 10 feet. The Corps must make releases to reduce high lake levels caused by flood waters that were held back following the event.

Releases from Falls were at minimum (100 cubic-feet-per-second) prior to this event and still remain at minimum. "The Corps has been working with the Southeast River Forecast Center (RFC) to evaluate planned releases from Falls that take into account downstream conditions, along with travel times and associated effects of those releases when combined with flows already in the river. Based on those evaluations, current plans call for releases from Falls to be gradually increased starting Saturday morning to 1000 cfs, to 2000 cfs on Sunday, 4000 cfs on Monday, and 6000 cfs on Tuesday. These higher releases are expected to last for at least 2 weeks," said Chief Public Affairs Officer Lisa Parker.

Downstream river stages are expected to have dropped below moderate flood stage by the time these releases reach downstream areas, and river levels should continue to remain below moderate flood stage. The Corps will continue to monitor downstream conditions and coordinate our release plans with the RFC. Our planned releases are reflected in the river forecasts prepared by the National Weather Service.