Army Corps of Engineers explains how much water is released from dams after heavy rainfall

More than 200 million gallons of water are being released every minute from the Keystone Dam. Heavy rainfall is filling up the lakes, and the amount of water released is being monitored.

How much is 200 million gallons of water?

It's enough to fill about 300 Olympic-sized swimming pools every minute. As of Tuesday afternoon, Keystone Lake is 21 feet above normal.

Where does water from the lakes come from?

The Arkansas River stretches across several states and feeds into many lakes around Oklahoma. Heavy rainfall from the river from Oklahoma and Kansas is impacting the current levels, according to the Army Corps of Engineers.

"Whenever rain falls, it eventually makes it to all of these reservoirs," said Taft Price, a forecaster for the Corps. "The big question is, where does the rain that fall? What is it going to do to that specific lake?"

How does the Corps determine how much water to release?

Price determines the impact rainfall will have on lakes, creeks and other bodies of water across southern Kansas, Oklahoma and northern Texas. They all feed into each other, so the amount of water released from one area has a direct impact on other areas downstream.

That impacts how much water is released in specific areas to prevent flooding.

"Even though Keystone may be really high, we have to also look downstream and we have to look and see what other reservoirs were actually releasing water," said Price.

Are the dams overwhelmed by all the rainfall?

The lakes and dams are all functioning normally, according to Price. Storage capacity is different at each lake, so the Corps tries to keep them balanced.

"Some may have a 20-foot flood pool, some may only have an eight-foot flood pool, but we use the percentages to try to get those down where they're level," said Price. "Then, we slowly drop the entire system down a little bit at a time."

Will more rain affect water release?

Price says releasing water is a balancing act that changes with any amount of rainfall. How much and where the rain falls is crucial when releasing water.