Associated PressAssociated Press

Missouri River levels are the highest in seven years due to heavy rains in early May, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says.

Wet weather last month also allowed the corps to cut discharges and save water in reservoirs on the Missouri River, which has been affected by drought since 2000, the agency said.

The corps said Lake Sakakawea rose 4.5 feet in May. Releases from Garrison Dam averaged 13,300 cubic feet per second during the month. Normal releases for May average 21,400 cfs.

The corps expects releases from Lake Sakakawea to average 16,000 cubic feet per second through the end of June, ending the month at 25 feet below normal, at 1814.1 feet above sea level.

Lake Sakakawea is 1.6 feet lower than this time last year, the corps said.

Lake Sakakawea has hit record-low levels in recent years because of prolonged drought in the Missouri River basin.

Lake Oahe is 3.5 feet higher than it was a year ago and is forecast to rise another 2 feet in June, the corps said. The reservoir that runs from north of Pierre, S.D., into North Dakota is still almost 23 feet below its normal elevation.

The agency said Fort Peck Reservoir in Montana gained 2.1 feet of water in May.

Runoff above Sioux City, Iowa, in May was 123 percent of normal, the corps said. The six Missouri River reservoirs held 38.3 million acre-feet of water at the end of May, an increase of 1.8 million acre-feet of water from the previous month, the agency said. An acre-foot is the amount of water covering an acre, one foot deep.

The reduced discharges and lower-than-average pool levels cut electric power generation at Missouri River dams by 35 percent, to a record low 285 million kilowatt hours of electricity. The electricity sold by the Western Area Power Administration.

Energy production for the year is expected to be 5.2 billion kilowatt hours, compared to the average of 10 billion kilowatt hours, the corps said.