Level of Beaver Creek going down, still will be flooding for some time

Commissioner Mark Peterson said during a commission working meeting Monday that levels in Beaver Creek are going down, but slowly and it may be high for some time.

Peterson said the only major damage so far has been at Evergeen Campground off of U.S. Highway 87 and Beaver Creek Golf Course west of town on U.S. Highway 2, other than on Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation, which also declared an emergency.

The Hill County Commission issued a declaration of emergency last week due to the rising levels of the creek.

Peterson said Monday that, by Sunday, the level going over the spillway at Beaver Creek Reservoir — AKA First Lake or Lower Lake — had gone down about a half foot since Friday.

“So we’re gradually going down,” Peterson said.

He said Beaver Creek Dam Manager Tim Herron is in close contact with the the people who operate East Fork Dam on Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation, and the county hopes the Chippewa Cree Tribe will be able to keep the outflow at that dam low enough to help reduce the levels in Beaver Creek.

He added that the mountains still have a lot of snow to melt off, but with the amount of trees and vegetation in that region he hopes the melting will come slowly enough to help reduce the levels of Beaver Creek.

He said snow also has to come off of the Sweetgrass Hills, but that has some time to flow through Sage Creek.

Sage Creek can hold a lot of water in itself, but it will start running, and we can expect a week to 10 day and we should see Sage Creek hitting (Big) Sandy Creek,” he said.

He said Chad Edgar, Beaver Creek Park superintendent, said a few areas are a problem. Peterson said Edgar is worried about losing a road and is putting out riprap to try to save it. He said he lost one campground early but it floods regularly and is not overly concerned. He said Edgar said it is time to move that campground.

“I think we will come out of this actually in pretty good shape, with the exception of the two public entities that have been heavily impacted,” Peterson said.