Ark flows

[ag3dw]

They are shuting it down, anybody have an idea what is going to happen for this weekend?

[BoilermakerU]

What's that mean - shutting it down?

[Snowhere]

Crystal ball says, worst case scenario it will be 700cfs. Best case scenario it will be higher, maybe 1000, but don't count on it.

[ag3dw]

Decreasing the releases from upstream empoundments.

[ag3dw]

WaterFlow Announcements their announcements are fairly cryptic. Anybody in the know?

[Mike Harvey]

It seems like we should just make a sticky thread for this time of year that has links to the 68 threads that cover this subject....

The Ark has a voluntary flow program whereby releases are timed by water users to keep the river above 700cfs on the Wellsville gauge up to August 15th. Basically as soon as the native flow on the Ark drops below 700 on that gauge then water users release "project" water, i.e. water that is imported through the Fry-Ark Project from the west slope, to keep the flow above 700cfs.

As flows drop this time of year your guess is as good as mine. I think it is possible to estimate how much native flow is in the river and how much they are releasing or are going to reduce flows by and then make an educated guess...but I can't. Basically it is going down now and might keep going down to 700 but I doubt it will drop that low by the weekend. Then generally try to keep the bottom from falling out. There is no real agreement on all the flows between the peak and 700 other than they don't make radical swings to help the fish out. Also it will not go back up unless we get a bunch of rain.

1000ish is sweet on the Ark, come on up.

[ag3dw]

Thanks Man. Coming up anyway. Just wanted to know if anybody knows what "they" were doing and what we can expect. "They" don't have a PR person like the Blue does.

[lmaciag]

Posted on the Ark website:

"On 07/16/09 at Noon, the release flow from Twin Lakes will be reduced from 150 cfs to 75 cfs. On 07/17/09, the release of 75 cfs will end."

To do the math:
Numbers went down to 735 this afternoon, so after tomorrow at noon it will be around 660.
Nathrop hasn't seen the drop yet and is at 1000, so 850 ish after tomorrow.

[mjpowhound]

[quote=lmaciag;152827]Posted on the Ark website:
"On 07/17/09, the release of 75 cfs will end."
quote]


Do they really do that? Release 0 from Twin Lakes?

[lmyers]

[quote=mjpowhound;152856 Do they really do that? Release 0 from Twin Lakes?[/quote]

No, these changes in flow are changes in project water, or water that is being transfered from one location to another, most of which comes from the Roaring Fork/Fryingpan drainage. Even in winter the flow never drops to zero. They are still releasing over 320 from the reservoir.