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| Can anyone tell me why the lake is so low.I don't don't rember it being this low last year,and they had alot more snow this year than last year.It seems like its 1 to 2 foot low.Just dosen't seem normal with all the rain we've been getting this spring. |
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Member
Posts: 874
Location: Neenah, WI | I live on the lake and it's been low all spring. They had both dams open for a long time. I haven't been that way lately so don't know if they are still open. |
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Member
Posts: 617
Location: Oshkosh, Wisconsin | The lake levels are adjusted by the Army Corp of Engineers. Up until the early part of April, the lake was actually a little higher than it has been in recent springs. It is about 3 inches lower this year than it was last, and maybe 6 or 8 inches lower than in 2000-2002. Watch for it to come up rapidly in the next week to 10 days.
Heres a link that can plot lake levels for any year back to about 1980. If you want to see multiple years, click on the year and hold the "shift" key down at the same time. If you select 2000-2004, you will see exactly what I just mentioned.
http://www.lre.usace.army.mil/greatlakes/hh/lakewinnebago/historicw...
There is also some pretty interesting info on the USGS site that plots stream flows and water temps.
Edited by Brad B 4/28/2004 7:52 AM
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| Good topic. Thanks for the information. I thought the goal was to get it to 3 by the first Saturday in May. They seemed to have missed by quite a bit when comparing to the last 5 years. Let's hope it comes up quick. |
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Member
Posts: 1314
Location: Menasha, WI | They closed the last gate at Neenah yesterday. I haven't been over the Menasha bridge for the last few days, but they had closed all but one of the gates as of late last week. They may have cloased the final gate within the last day or two. I know the lake is so low that the Neenah rec launch is temporarily closed. |
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Posts: 874
Location: Neenah, WI | Here is something I heard today, I see the sense in it but don't know if it's true. They wanted to draw the lake down and then close the dams due to the scheduled dredging of Little Lake Butte des Morts this summer. LLBdM is a Superfund PCB site. The skinny is that now they will open the downriver dams and draw LLBdM down to make the dredging more effective. |
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| I have third hand information from someone who lives on the lake. They called the Army Corps of Engineers. They said the lake was going to start rising. They did not get the scoop on why it was drawn down so far . |
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| ya I hope it does come back up soon. I was on a branch of the pumpkinseed and there was nothing but mud. Where are the panfish going to go to spawn now? |
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| Be Careful. Yesterday I was south of oskosh and bent up my scag pretty bad......a half mile out. There were some swells but I saw rock just as I hit the trim buttom.....luckily I was not under power. Could be dangerous....especially for the cabin cruisers if it doesn't come up. Water clarity was only a few inches. No fish. First time out. |
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Member
Posts: 141
Location: Oshkosh, WI | I hit a rock in the fugelberg launch in Oshkosh - toward the northeast rip rap breakwall. Gotta love that steel prop. |
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| Monday I told a friend of mine that I had never seen the lake so low. We saw that they were closing Neenah gates that moring. So he stopped by a Dam tender and asked why the lake was so low. The tender said they dropped it lower than they wanted. Sounded like it got away on them. |
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| Monday I told a friend of mine that I had never seen the lake so low. We saw that they were closing Neenah gates that moring. So he stopped by a Dam tender and asked why the lake was so low. The tender said they dropped it lower than they wanted. Sounded like it got away on them. |
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| Monday I told a friend of mine that I had never seen the lake so low. We saw that they were closing Neenah gates that moring. So he stopped by a Dam tender and asked why the lake was so low. The tender said they dropped it lower than they wanted. Sounded like it got away on them. |
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| This is usually the only time of year we have a decent water level. I can't imagine what it is going to be like through a dry July and August. The water has only risen a couple of inches since the closing of the dam talk a couple weeks ago. |
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New User
Posts: 3
Location: Kaukauna, WI | The entire water system, from the head waters of the Wolf river is controlled by Kaukauna Utilities and the Army Corp. of Engineers. The water rights are owned by them due to the hydro-electric power generated at a few dams along the Fox River and maybe a few more elseware. The Corps. of Engineers uses a date controlled method of controlling the gates and spillways at all the dams. This main "control" center is in Detroit, Michigan. This spring has been a constant battle with Detroit to try to shut the gates and allow the water levels to reach their normal spring levels. Because of the yearly statistics of where the water level should be on a given date, the water just kept running out. Now, if anyone has driven through downtown Kaukauna, over the main bridge (HWY 55), you will notice lumber in place on top of the spillways across the dam. this is to help hold more of our much needed H2O up river and into the lakes. This info. was provided by affiliates to the company in "control". Hope this helps everyone. If you disagree with any of the above info. please share with us. |
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Member
Posts: 617
Location: Oshkosh, Wisconsin | The lake has came up nearly 9 inches since this discussion started. It is now within 2 inches of the "summer" level.
No draught. No drawn down. No mysterious alien water stealing plot. Basically the same year in and year out.
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Member
Posts: 141
Location: Oshkosh, WI | kind of a funny question now, isn't it? Except for people who have gotten basements flooded and the like this has been a good thing. Now let's just hope the weather straightens out for a while. |
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| They have all the gates opened again to try and flush some of this water out of the lake. |
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Posts: 1656
| I'm sure they are, On the news last night said every dam was open between bago and GB to get rid of excess water.
Little lake butte des mort is the highest I've seen it in 12 yrs. |
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