Corps taking Albeni Falls off free-flow

OLDTOWN — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced on Monday it is transitioning Albeni Falls Dam off of free-flow.

Discharges at the Pend Oreille River dam were reduced from 85,000 cubic feet per second to 80 cfs over a one-and-a-half-hour period. Outflows were reduced to 77,000 cfs.

“Outflows will continue to be reduced as inflows recede,” Logan Osgood-Zimmerman, an engineer in training in the hydraulics and hydrology branch of the corps’ Water Management Section in Seattle, said in a update on Monday.

Osgood-Zimmerman said the corps is targeting a Lake Pend Oreille elevation of 2,062 feet above sea level by the end of the month.

Bonner County officials closed the boat launch at Bonner Park West in Priest River due to river flows in the narrowed section of river. Steve Klatt, director of Parks & Waterways for county, said the closure was a precaution mainly for inexperienced boaters.

But with the dam no long on free flow and flows reduced to 77,000 cfs, the temporary closure was lifted.

“We will be reopening that Bonner Park West ramp,” Klatt said on Monday.