Gates Control LOW water, not HIGH water

In reponse to the many, many emails like Vivian's question below, I will elaborate on that answer, for those who have only moved here in the last 10 days and for those who seemingly are unaware of the vast amount of data available on the RKLD website.

On the WATER LEVEL page, at the bottom, are the monthly logs of water levels, flow, and gate operations. This report SAMPLE - JULY is filed daily with the DNR, Rock County and Jefferson County.

It is fairly easy to see that the RKLD does an amazing job at adhering to the complex DNR operating orders, found HERE, on the Indianford Dam page.

Now, since we are receiving so many emails, it is obvious that those folks must also have Internet access. And because this board is comprised of all volunteers, we post everything - in hopes our 4,000+ constituents will find their answers on the RKLD site. And as you will see if you navigate the site for just 10 minutes, the board has been 110% transparent.

So, looking back at August 1st, for all you new residents unfamiliar with the DNR orders or the quirky behavior of Mother Nature - the lake levels were dropping and were in fact BELOW the traget level of 776.2 -- see easy-to-read graph HERE.

Gates were opened and closed almost daily due to the lack of rain (controlling the LOW water) in attempts to keep the lake levels near target.

On August 18th, Saturday, the lake level was 776.14, BELOW target., yet ALL 6 SLIDE GATES WERE OPEN.

Then, the rain started, and on AUGUST 20th, BOTH WICKET GATES WERE OPENED 100%

In other words, when the rains started and the forecast was what it was last week, ALL GATES were wide open.

So, please, read the orders and understand, DNR operating orders also requires the RKLD to measure inflow into the lake when determining what we can do with the gates at Indianford.