How To Stay Informed About Floodgate Operations

For the most current information on the Grand Lake elevation and floodwater releases at Pensacola Dam, there are a couple of things you can do.

First, for updates on the flood water release from GRDA, you can call the Ecosystems and Education Center in Langley at (918) 782-4726 for a recorded message. Not sure how often that is updated in high water events, but it is available.

You can also visit the GRDA website at THIS LINK for current lake levels, inflows and releases. It doesn’t tell you exactly how many gates are open at any time, but it does give you the most accurate picture of inflows and outflows.

And if you are on social media, you can find GRDA at a couple of places on Facebook, HERE is their Ecosystems and Education Center page and HERE is another page. On Twitter? Follow GRDA HERE.

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When the rains come in the Grand River watershed, the resulting inflows to Grand Lake and Lake Hudson eventually lead to floodgate operations at the Grand River Dam Authority’s Pensacola and Robert S. Kerr dams.

During these times of water releases, GRDA tries to keep the public informed with its “floodwater release bulletins.”

These are produced every time the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers directs a new gate operation and each bulletin contains information on lake elevations, how much water (cubic feet per second) is flowing out through gates and generation, and how much water is still coming into the river system.

When it is available, the bulletins also contain the Corps’ predicted lake crest information.

These bulletins are released to a large email distribution list containing area media as well as lake-area stakeholders who have asked to be included in this database.

The bulletins are also posted to the GRDA Facebook page and website and the latest bulletins are also distributed via text message to those who have signed up for the GRDA TextCaster (sign up for this free service by clicking on the “Text Alerts” tab under the “News” drop down menu on grda.com).

A recorded phone message is updated with new gate information whenever it is available. You can access the recording by calling the main GRDA Ecosystems and Education Center phone number: (918) 782 4726.

The 70,000 surface acres of lake waters managed by GRDA are certainly “near and dear” to many Oklahomans and the Authority’s goal is to provide the type of data that lake-area stakeholders find important. 

It is all part of the GRDA mission to make certain that “on and around our lakes we will support recreational development, environmental awareness and good safety practices to ensure the continued improvement of the quality of life for all of those who utilize our resources.”