The River Runs High

You know the river's high and fast and according to officials at the Natural Resources Conservation Service its only the beginning. The N-R-C-S issued high water runoff notifications Monday for much of the state.

Listen Here:

Lee Hackleman is Water Supply Specialist for the NRCS and he says, while they don't forecast flooding, they do want to alert people to high water volumes.

"The whole western half of the state has really picked up this last week, last two weeks actually, but this last week its went up a lot. And of course, here in Casper, we're worried about the North Platte and its reached 150 percent now."

Hackleman says highest flow right now is in the Upper Bear River at 156 percent of average, but he says there's 120 to 130 percent above normal levels all over. The North Platte river is carrying about 4500 cubic feet per second right now as the Bureau of Reclamation works to make space in Seminole and Pathfinder Reservoirs.

"Pathfinder and Seminole don't have the room to handle the increased runoff we're gonna get so there taking it down to Glendo, and in fact, they're taking as much as they can plum out of the state down through Nebraska."

The river is running very fast, so beware if your on or near it and Hackleman suggests that residents living close to river levels may wish to move forward with  the same precautions they took last year. He says snow melt will get started and be at full flow by the end of May.