Winter Drawdown Initiation will begin October 15th and be completed by November 1st
Prior to the 2019 order (2017) there was a water temperature qualifier that dictated the rate of drawdown that started on September 30 with winter level set at current level by October 15. The current order (2019 & 2020) sets the winter level at October 15 with no other details.
The water control tools now in place must remain in place and maintained until the new gates are installed and functional. There will be a time when the downstream flow will be blocked from the back side while the concrete sawing within the wicket chamber is completed. This is the time of operation risk. One chamber at a time is permitted to be demoed and because of the increase in flow of one completed chamber, the second will not be an issue unless of extreme high-water conditions.
The water level order is set by WDNR. Our compliance with that order has led to many collaborative issues have been worked out between WDNR and RKLD including the $400,000 dam grant and the savings of hundreds of thousands of future expenses saved by removing the trash racks.