Lake Tschida (Heart Butte) Water Level
Lake Tschida (Heart Butte) is at 2,057.64 ft today (Oct 31), 6.86 ft below its 2,064.5 ft full pool, down 0.05 ft this week.
North Dakota · Heart River
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Water level history
About Lake Tschida (Heart Butte)
Lake Tschida (Heart Butte) is a reservoir on the Heart River in North Dakota, operated by U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. Its full summer pool sits at 2064.5 ft above sea level. Live water levels come from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (CWMS) and update hourly.
Understanding Lake Tschida (Heart Butte)'s water level
Lake Tschida has no gates on top. Its normal level is set by the lip of a concrete morning glory spillway, a funnel-shaped intake on the right abutment of Heart Butte Dam, at elevation 2,064.5 feet. When the Heart River brings in more water than the lake holds at that line, the excess pours over the rim and drops through a 14-foot conduit to the river below without anyone opening a gate. Reclamation's only controlled release is a gated outlet conduit with its intake at 2,030 feet, rated at 700 cubic feet per second and used for irrigation deliveries and for drawing the pool down. Between 2,064.5 and 2,094.5 feet sits 147,605 acre-feet of exclusive flood storage, more than twice the 60,763 acre-feet of conservation space below it. The glory hole is designed to pass only 5,700 cubic feet per second, and that only with the lake at 2,118 feet, near the top of the dam's design surcharge, so water that rises into this zone can leave no faster than the glory hole and outlet allow.
The dam was authorized by the Flood Control Act of December 1944 as part of the Heart River Unit and is now the main feature of the Heart Butte Unit of the Pick-Sloan Missouri Basin Program. Work began in April 1948, the same spring an ice jam on the Heart broke over Mandan's emergency dikes and forced hundreds from their homes. Storage began on 29 September 1949 and the dam was finished that December, about 18 miles south of Glen Ullin in Grant County. It paid off almost at once: in the spring of 1950 the new lake and the Mandan levees together kept a record Heart River flow out of town, a flow Reclamation estimated would have reached about 40,000 cubic feet per second at Mandan without the dam. The lake drains 1,710 square miles, about 400 of which first pass through E.A. Patterson Reservoir upstream. Average inflow is about 86,000 acre-feet a year, but 1982 brought nearly 307,000. Releases serve roughly 7,800 irrigable acres downstream.
High water has shaped life on the shoreline. In 2009 a lake level described as the highest in 50 years partly flooded 16 cabins, and Reclamation ordered every permanent structure in the flood pool removed, affecting 114 cabins. The worry was debris drifting into the glory hole. The deadline, first set for 2010, was pushed to 2021 after the state's congressional delegation stepped in. The bigger story now is the dam itself. Cracks in the outlet conduit showed up during construction in 1949, and on 25 January 2013 inspectors found foundation sand inside the spillway conduit, a sign of seepage through a joint. Reclamation rates the dam's risk of failure as unsatisfactory and signed off on a Safety of Dams repair, combining seepage cutoff and filtration work with grouting of the conduit, in January 2025. Construction is planned for 2027 through 2030. The lake is to stay at normal levels in 2026 and 2027, with the drawdown scheduled for 2028 and 2029, down to as low as 2,030 feet.
Lake Tschida (Heart Butte) — frequently asked
What is Lake Tschida's full pool elevation?
2,064.5 feet, the crest of the morning glory spillway and the top of the conservation pool. At that level Reclamation's 2013 survey measured 3,142 surface acres and 65,091 acre-feet of storage. The top of the flood control pool is 2,094.5 feet. North Dakota Game and Fish's depth map lists full pool as 2,066.0 feet, but that figure is referenced to the newer NAVD88 datum, while USGS and Reclamation records use the 1929 datum.
Why is Lake Tschida above full pool?
Because nothing but the spillway lip decides when water leaves. Anything above 2,064.5 feet falls into the glory hole on its own, and the structure's design capacity is just 5,700 cubic feet per second, with only a 700 cubic feet per second gated outlet beside it. After heavy snowmelt or rain the lake rises into its flood pool and comes down only as fast as those two openings can drain it.
What is the record high level at Lake Tschida?
2,086.23 feet on 9 April 1952, when the lake held about 174,000 acre-feet, nearly 22 feet above the spillway crest. Even then it stayed inside the flood control zone; Reclamation notes the lake has never reached the surcharge zone that begins at 2,094.5 feet. The wettest year on record for inflow was 1982, at 306,872 acre-feet. The Recent range in the gauge panel covers only the last few years, so it shows neither the 1952 peak nor the 1991 low.
What is the lowest level Lake Tschida has reached?
USGS records give 2,049.00 feet on 25 October 1991, the lowest since the lake first filled to the spillway, with about 32,820 acre-feet in storage. That is 15.5 feet below full pool. Reclamation's 2013 sedimentation report lists the same 2,049.0 feet but dates it to 1992. The planned dam repair drawdown, as low as 2,030 feet, would go well below that mark.
Will Lake Tschida be drained for the Heart Butte Dam repairs?
Partly. Reclamation's environmental review called for lowering the lake to a minimum of 2,030 feet, the top of dead storage, to dewater the work site and cut the risk of uncontrolled spillway flow during construction. Its May 2026 update keeps the lake at normal levels in 2026 and 2027 and schedules the drawdown for 2028 and 2029. Campgrounds on the lake are expected to stay open, while the campground below the dam will close.
Is Lake Tschida filling in with sediment?
Slowly. Reclamation's 2013 survey found the lake had lost 10,953 acre-feet of capacity below 2,064.5 feet since 1949, an average of about 169 acre-feet a year and roughly 14 percent of the conservation pool over 64 years. Part of the Heart River's load settles first in E.A. Patterson Reservoir upstream. The survey found no sediment problem at the outlet works intake.
What fish are in Lake Tschida?
Walleye, northern pike, yellow perch, white bass, black and white crappie, channel catfish, smallmouth and largemouth bass and bluegill, along with bigmouth buffalo, carp, bullhead and goldeye. North Dakota Game and Fish's 2020 survey map puts the maximum depth at 57 feet and the average at 20 feet. The lake has five fishing piers, and the Heart Butte Reservoir State Game Management Area lies along the south shore.
Other lakes near Lake Tschida (Heart Butte)
See current levels for all 6 North Dakota lakes and reservoirs →
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