SIOUX CITY, Iowa (KTIV) In Sioux City, releases have already brought the Missouri River up to 25 feet.
That's about 12 feet above normal.
With boating season now underway, there are some safety concerns to keep in mind.
"The river is very high this year," said Doug Potts, Coast Guard Auxiliary.
With spring slow to arrive, much of the traffic so far on the Missouri River has been people fishing from its banks.
But that's about to change. And when it does, the Coast Guard Auxiliary wants boaters to use common sense.
You will be amazed at how quickly you can be in the water and not have time to pull a life jacket out from under the seat, the bottom of the boat. So always wear your life jackets when you are active out on the water. Number two is avoid alcohol. That's always the other impairment problem that we have and number three is just common sense.
"The good side is you have more water to boat in, the bad this is you have water in areas that normally don't have water so the people aren't familiar with those areas. There could be submerged logs, rocks, items underneath the surface that you are not aware of that you need to be careful of," said Doug Potts, Sioux City Coast Guard Auxiliary.
Life-long boater and boat business owner, Tony Simoni says he's seen the river this high before.
"My advice would be to make sure they run kind of in the center of the river, channel side, stay away from the wing dams especially if they are familiar with the water, if they aren't familiar with the water, they probably shouldn't be on it," said Tony Simoni, Cimmarina Owner.
While most of the emergency calls on the river are from boaters with mechanical problems... deadly accidents do happen.
"But unfortunately, as an average we do lose three to five people out here for deaths out here on the river and that's the ones that we hate to have and nobody plans to have an accident like that but it can happen so fast," said Doug Potts.
Since high water levels aren't going away any time soon, Potts says boaters need to respect the river or you can get into trouble.
Another thing to keep in mind, starting July first the legal blood-alcohol content level for boaters will be lowered to .08.
