The Sabine River Authority Wednesday morning lowered gates at Toledo Bend Reservoir, the second day in a row of decreases. Ann Galassi, assistant general manager, said no increases in the water releases are expected. “It is going down,” she said. Rumors have been going around that the SRA is scheduling a big release when many will still be recovering.
The reservoir dam on Wednesday had four gates open at six feet and five open at five feet. The release was a total of 58,750 cubic feet per second of water. A few days earlier, nine gates were open at 22 feet with about 208,000 feet per second.
Galassi said the dam has a manual of operations with procedures to follow. The record releases at the dam were not only because of 18 to 20 inch rains in northeast Texas flowing down.
“We had 20 inches of rain over Toledo Bend,” she said. “It stalled over us.” That, along with the inflowing water from the north led to the record releases of water from the reservoir, which opened 50 years ago.
“We can’t control what comes down,” Galassi said. “We did protect the integrity of the dam.”
Galassi said the Sabine River Authority would not base releases of water because of a fishing tournament.
A rumor has circulated the river authority held off on releasing water before March 9 because of a fishing tournament. A similar rumor was spread during the 1989 flood. Galassi said the authority would not do that and an operating manual is used to determine releases.
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