Congressman Ryan Zinke is calling on the Department of the Interior to increase outflows from Hungry Horse Dam in the hopes of raising the Flathead Lake’s summer water level.

Energy Keepers Inc., the company that manages the SKQ dam, predicted last week that the water level of Flathead Lake may fall 3 feet below full pool by August.  

If realized, the low water level would be “catastrophic,” Zinke warned in a June 12 letter addressed to Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum. 

“Small businesses which only operate three months out of the year will be forced to close. Tourism will drop as water activities are not available due to inaccessible docks and infrastructure. And farms and ranches will not receive the water they need to bring their product to market,” Zinke wrote. 

Zinke concludes with a request for the Department of the Interior to authorize greater water releases from the Hungry Horse Reservoir. The Bureau of Reclamation, which manages the Hungry Horse Dam, is among the agencies that the Department of the Interior oversees. 

The SKQ Dam on the southern end of Flathead Lake is primarily managed by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes through Energy Keepers. Inflows to and outflows from the dam must also comply with flood risk management objectives set by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.  

Though neither entity falls under the jurisdiction of the Department of the Interior, Zinke urged Burgum to “work with the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes to reduce outflow from the SKQ Dam.”  

“I understand the lake will not get to pull pool using these measures,” writes Zinke. “However, if we can prevent it from dropping to catastrophic levels, it will save small business and local tax revenue that is sorely needed.” 

In a list of Frequently Asked Questions posted to their website, Energy Keepers suggested that moving water from Hungry Horse Reservoir to Flathead Lake was unfeasable. The streamflow above the reservoir has been lower than normal, and the Bureau of Reclamation must consider obligations like flood risk and endangered species habitat above Flathead Lake’s water level. 

As the statement from Energy Keepers puts it, “Hungry Horse Dam is not managed to provide a specific elevation at Flathead Lake.” 

Earlier this year, Zinke re-introduced the Fill the Lake Act. The bill proposes keeping Flathead Lake’s water level between 2,892 and 2,893 feet between June 15 and Sept. 15. Those levels are already codified through a 1965 Memorandum of Understanding with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, but Zinke argued that additional legislation is necessary to prevent what he called a “another failure of management that leads to another catastrophically low pool.”  

The bill has not yet been scheduled for a hearing.   

Reporter Hailey Smalley may be reached at 758-4433 or [email protected].