Lower Blue River goes up

[klamb]

Howdy all,
I hope everyone has had a good winter.

Spring is drawing near and we're starting to plan for run-off and the demands of summer. As a result, we bumped up releases from Green Mountain Reservoir today by 25 cfs. We'll bump up another 25 cfs tomorrow, too.

By tomorrow afternoon, there should be about 310 cfs in the Lower Blue River.

Please let me know if you have any questions, concerns, etc.

All the best,
Kara

[mvhyde]

You're a wonderful Dam Lady

[rockinRio]

How long do you plan on releasing at that level?

[rhm]

how much water is in the reservoir right now? drove by there today and it was looking like it was pretty low. is there sufficient snow pack to fill the reservoir this year or is it still too early to tell? is there ice in the canyon, or is it clear?

[COUNT]

I would put money on the fact that a large amount of the river is iced over right now. The upper half of that canyon hardly gets any sun in the summer, let alone early March. Plus it's been pretty cold and snowy in Summit, Eagle, Grand, Routt, lately, which makes me think it hasn't been much warmer on the Lower Blue. I don't want to be the one to rain on any parades, I'm just as jonesin' as all you guys are.

D

[klamb]

I'll go with COUNT's description of the canyon regarding ice. As for the other questions, here's what I know.

How long do you plan on releasing at that level?

We don't have an exact time frame. Things that could change the releases are mostly weather related: more snow or rain, unusual heat and aridity for this time of year, sustained high winds at high elevations. But, Denver's operations of Dillon also figure into what we release, as do demands downstream on the Colorado. My guess is that we will be in the low 300s for at least a week, or two. I'll be sure to update you all, though, when it changes.

how much water is in the reservoir right now?

Right now, our storage in Green Mountain is 78,255 acre-feet--well, actually, it's probably a little lower than that because that is the summary from last night at midnight and we've kept releasing, of course. But, it's a good estimation. At the 78,200 af storage level, the water level is at an elevation around 7905 feet. That's about 40-45 vertical feet from full capacity. We do not fill to full capacity, most years.

If you are interested in Reclamation's data summaries on Green Mountain, visit this webpage: http://www.usbr.gov/gp/hydromet/greresco.cfm.
Please keep in mind that the data recorded there is logged at midnight.

is there sufficient snow pack to fill the reservoir this year or is it still too early to tell?

That's the golden question. But, you're right, it's too early to tell.

Right now, it looks like there is enough snowpack to fill the reservoir. Precipitation over the past few months has been about 112% of average for Green Mountain and inflows over that same time period have been about 117% of average. But, that is the summary from February and, as experience has proven time and time again, February stats are just plain too early in the game for drawing any lasting conclusions. It will be interesting to see what March brings.

All good questions. Please let me know if there are others. I'll do my best to answer.
--Kara