A month or so ago someone posted that ark is supposed to get water release through Aug 15? Any update on this? Numbers was fun last week at 450 (below granite). Enough flow to go from stealth to the grassy knoll. Looks like 380 today.
Dropping now. Sounds like there will still be releases for another week or maybe two. As of now there is 150 cfs coming out of Twin Lakes above the native flow. If they cut the releases completely the flow on Numbers is going to drop to 275... Just looking at the current storage in Twin Lakes I would guess they will release another 7k acre ft or so before cutting it off completely. At the current release level that amount of water will last about +/- 10 days.
thanks, great info. will try to get up next week. btw, is it just side streams that account for difference between the below granite and nathrop guages?
Yep. You have Frenchman Creek, 3 Elk Creek, Fourmile Creek, Cottonwood Creek, Chalk Creek and Browns Creek that come in before the "near Nathrop" gauge, which is actually located at Hecla Junction.
I presume the answer to this is too complex, but curious what discussion there has ever been about alternating the flow of the Ark between day and night so that not quite so much water gets pushed through during the middle of the night when (I presume) no one recreationally cares. I know the water flow out of Flaming Gorge alternates wildly between night and day. You would presume the flows would be much more boater friendly if they alternated it as such.
I think that Flaming Gorge is a hydroelectric project and, like Glen Canyon Dam, releases to meet the daily electricity demand fluctuations.
My understanding is the flow on the Ark is released at a constant rate because the fluctuations in discharge take a couple of days to get from the dam to Canon City. They just can't time the flows for maximum daytime recreation for the whole AHRA section.
Just talked to someone in the industry who said the last of the augmentation gets done on Monday. Makes sense. They're squeezing one last weekend out of it. Hard to get rubber down at these flows but kayaking is wonderful.
Ok. So I talked to an AHRA ranger yesterday. There is 150 CFS of augmentation right now. It will be done next Monday unless we get significant monsoon help. Probably dialed back 50 a day. That means there's 115 native flow in the Numbers! Browns was lovely yesterday.
Ya it's pretty much off now. It's still good for IK's, kayaks, and mini rafts, but beware the raft ripper! I don't think commercials are running to Hecla anymore. But still keep an eye on the gauges, there are still occasional releases, and we've seen boatable flows in Brown's just about every month for a couple years now.
Ha. We watched ~6 commercials pin repeatedly on Pine Creek and again at Number Zero before sneaking past them yesterday.
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