Montana’s U.S. senators submitted a letter recently urging Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum to “identify a path forward” to maintain sufficient water levels in Flathead Lake in future years facing drought conditions.
The Aug. 5 letter signed by Republican Sens. Steve Daines and Tim Sheehy asks the secretary to collaborate with local and regional stakeholder groups to find a solution that balances the myriad uses of the largest freshwater lake west of the Mississippi River.
“I request that you … identify a solution that maintains hydropower production and economic development, abides by statutory requirements and other legal obligations, including President Trump’s recent Executive Order 141554-Unleashing American Energy, respects property rights, promotes outdoor recreation, has the support of the local communities, and minimizes future conflict,” the letter states.
While above-normal precipitation in July has kept Flathead Lake closer to normal levels than was anticipated earlier this year, the senators wrote a holistic approach to lake levels should be considered in the long term, as opposed to requiring one-off fixes every time there are drought conditions and potential low-water years.
Montana’s elected federal and state officials have mounted political pressure on dam operators and federal officials to maintain water levels on Flathead Lake for several years, following drought conditions in 2023 that led to record-low lake levels more than two feet lower than the lake’s full-pool elevation of 2,893 feet by summer’s end.
The primary ask from the state has been for the federal government to approve water releases from Hungry Horse Reservoir upstream, while Energy Keepers Inc., the tribal corporation that operates Se̓liš Ksanka Qĺispe̓ (SKQ) Dam at the lake’s southern end, decrease outflows to the lower Flathead River.
Related coverage: Flathead Lake water level forecast changes for month of August
As lake levels dropped in late June of 2023, economic concerns in the region grew as boat launches and docks were largely unusable, farmers in the region dealt with decreased abilities to irrigate crops, and power generation from the SKQ Dam, which controls the lake’s output, slowed.
In early 2025, Energy Keepers stated that streamflow conditions in the Flathead Basin were “similar to 2023 and 2024,” and the dam was being operated to increase the likelihood of filling to full pool. To that end, dam operators requested, and received, approval from the federal government to make temporary modifications to outflows from the dam to maximize the chance of refilling under drought conditions, including reducing outflows in June and July.
However, by June, dam operators announced they did not expect the lake to reach its full pool, with forecasts showing the lake dropping more than a foot by July.
Low levels of snowpack and warm weather throughout the spring led to the Flathead River basin sitting around 59% of its average snow water equivalent — the amount of water is contained within the snowpack — which Energy Keepers said was not enough to fill the lake, despite plans to reduce outflows through mid-July.
But precipitation in the region in July was nearly 300% of normal, according to the latest Energy Keepers update last week, which altered the lake’s late-summer fate. Recent streamflow forecasts estimated “the lake will remain in the top 12 inches through most of August,” according to Energy Keepers, a full half-foot higher than originally anticipated.
Despite the better-than-expected conditions, the letter submitted to Secretary Burgum, which praised his agency’s actions granting the temporary modifications to SKQ operations, focused on an expected future of droughts in the region.
“Over the last several years, we have seen unseasonably warm conditions that have resulted in accelerated runoff in the northern reaches of the Flathead basin. Decreased inflows into the lake have precipitated lower lake levels, adversely affecting environmental and economic conditions for residents and visitors alike,” the letter states. “I urge you to identify a path forward that does not depend on granting annual emergency authorities to maintain sufficient lake levels for the local communities that call Flathead Lake home.”
During the 2023 drought, which ultimately saw Flathead Lake’s surface level at 31 inches below full pool by the end of August, tensions around who gets a say in the lake’s management ratcheted up.
Some groups in the region, led by members of the Flathead County Republicans and local property owners, blamed the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, who operate SKQ Dam through the tribally-owned corporation Energy Keepers Inc. Those groups challenged the scientific consensus that the low lake levels were due to historic warm and dry conditions that saw a rapid melt off of the area’s snowpack.
Complaints filed against Energy Keepers with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission led to FERC issuing an analysis that found the dam operators did not violate their operating license by allowing the lake level to drop.
Under the FERC license, Energy Keepers is able to regulate the top 10 feet of the dam-controlled lake, amounting to 1.2 million acre-feet of water storage.
Under normal operating procedures, the dam-controlled lake drops to its lowest point by April 15 to provide flood control across the region, then rises to 3 feet from full pool by Memorial Day, hitting a full pool elevation of roughly 2,893 feet by June 12. The goal is to then operate in the full-pool range through Labor Day, according to Energy Keepers CEO Brian Lipscomb, before lowering the levels in October to mitigate erosion from fall storms. However, there is no legal obligation to maintain a full pool in the license.
SKQ Dam is part of the greater Columbia River Basin network of hydroelectric dam projects that regulate waterways for hydropower generation, flood control, navigation, fish and wildlife preservation, irrigation and recreation. A key part of the operating considerations for the region’s dams are to protect and preserve threatened and endangered fish species, including salmon and bull trout, the latter of which are found throughout the Flathead River basin.
However, many businesses in the region rely heavily on Flathead Lake’s recreational opportunities, with studies from the University of Montana showing that roughly $600 million is spent in Flathead County from anglers, boaters and other tourists visiting the lake.
Montana politicians at the county, state, and federal level have voiced that concern, including in a resolution brought to the 2025 Legislature by Senate President Matt Regier, a Flathead Republican, which sought increased prioritization of recreation in management decisions.
Changes to outflows from any one project can have a ripple effect downstream. The Columbia River Basin Technical Management Team (TMT), comprising of representatives from four states, the Bureau of Reclamation (BoR), Army Corps of Engineers, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bonneville Power Administration and six tribal nations, manages the region's federally-operated dams as a whole system.
During the 2023 drought, in subsequent legislation introduced in Congress by Montana U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke, and in a 2025 letter from Zinke to Burgum, requests were made to authorize the release of water from Hungry Horse Dam into Flathead Lake. However, due to the size discrepancy between the two reservoirs, it would take roughly 15 feet of water from Hungry Horse to add eight inches to Flathead Lake.
“I humbly ask you to authorize the release (of) more water from the Hungry Horse Reservoir … to ensure viable lake levels for recreation on Flathead Lake this summer,” Zinke wrote. “I understand the lake will not get to full pool using these measures; however, if we can prevent it from dropping to catastrophic levels, it will save small businesses and local tax revenue that is sorely needed.”
Studies published by the U.S. Geological Survey have indicated that releasing vast amounts of water from Hungry Horse dam would be detrimental to endangered bull trout in the Flathead River by decreasing habitat space and impacting the life cycle of aquatic insects, a primary food source for native fish.
“A big release would lead to cascading impacts to the entire aquatic ecosystem,” Clint Muhlfeld, the researcher who authored several studies, told the Flathead Beacon in 2023.
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