Rain; 
eels; 
data centers; and more, in this week’s Potomac News Reservoir – Sept. 18, 2025 >>>
River Report: Rain Provides Some Drought Relief
Today’s U.S. Drought Monitor map shows a marked increase in drought conditions across the basin, with 19% in Severe Drought and 44% in Moderate Drought. However, the maps are released on Thursday with data ending on Tuesday, so this map does not take into account the 1+ inches the basin has received over the past 24 hours.
According to today’s ICPRB CO-OP Drought Monitoring report, the far western basin may receive up to 0.75 inches over the next day or so and an additional 0.0-0.25 over the next week.
The USGS gage at Point of Rocks is responding to the rain with a sharp increase in flow, currently above 2,400 cubic feet per second (cfs). A flow of 2,000 cfs is CO-OPs trigger for conducting Daily Monitoring with an email on precipitation conditions, water use, and other pertinent information to water suppliers and government agencies. As you can see in the graph, the flow is already starting to decrease. We will continue to monitor the conditions and provide updates on social media using #droughtmonitoring.
Reduce, reuse, and recycle… eel ladders
The American eel has historically been found throughout the Potomac River. Eels are an important part of the ecosystem, including as transport for larval freshwater mussels upstream. In recent centuries, dams and other hindrances have decreased access to available habitat, resulting in significantly reduced population numbers.
ICPRB is helping to restore the eels to their native range and make existing populations more resilient by installing eelways. These ladders help eels safely up and over a dam to expand their spawning area.
At Dam 5 (near Falling Waters, WV) along the North Branch Potomac River, this will be the second eelway. The first one was destroyed during a major storm some years ago. This left large pieces of metal in the river below the dam.
This week, ICPRB staff and our partners at U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service worked to remove the pieces of the first eelway. The remnants will be hauled to a machinist to be reconfigured into a eel ladder that will be designed to withstand strong storms and can be removed when the eels are not migrating.
We would like to thank Mike Dudash at Eagle Aquatics, Inc. for letting us borrow the boat to haul the pieces.
This project is made possible through a grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation with support from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, the U.S. Forest Service and Altria. Additional support was provided by the National Park Service.