"Snow Drought" Means Significant Drawdown Likely From Flaming Gorge Dam This Spring In Effort To Prop Up Powell & Mead
Wyoming’s top water managers are warning that a significant drawdown of Flaming Gorge Reservoir this spring is likely imminent due to low snowpack and generally dry conditions throughout the seven-state Colorado River Basin region. Wyoming is a headwaters of the Colorado River system, mostly via the Green River, which feeds Flaming Gorge. As of Jan. 8, snow cover across the West was at its lowest since 2001, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Rain instead of snow throughout much of the region so far this winter portends a scant end-of-winter “water bank” vital to the river system when snow begins to melt in the spring, the agency noted. NOAA’s Jan. 14 update for the region indicated, “Snow drought has expanded and/or intensified across the Sierra Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and southwest Colorado.”
“The ground is pretty dry out there and so we’re not incredibly optimistic about what the runoff is going to look like, even if we do have good snowpack” in the coming months, said Senior Assistant Attorney General Chris Brown, who serves as counsel to the Wyoming State Engineer’s Office.
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Flaming Gorge, which straddles the Wyoming-Utah border, is one of the key reservoirs in the Colorado River system that water managers turn to for extra releases when there’s a projected shortage — primarily to ensure operational water levels at Lake Powell. It’s a function of the Drought Response Operations Agreement among the basin states, multiple tribes and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. The DROA and other binding agreements among Colorado River stakeholders have been the subject of a years-long negotiation with a fast-approaching deadline to renew.
For now, water managers are still tied to the current drought response plan, which regards Flaming Gorge as among “low-hanging fruit” to help meet downstream needs during exceptionally dry conditions, Brown explained Friday at a meeting of the Wyoming Colorado River Advisory Committee. Because of the widespread extent of “snow drought” so far this season, Brown said, Flaming Gorge stands as a primary spigot among several other backup reservoirs to supplement Lake Powell, which straddles the Arizona-Utah border.
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https://wyofile.com/snow-drought-may-result-in-extra-release-from-flaming-gorge/
Ed. - Worth noting that whatever happens, there's only so much that Flaming Gorge releases can do. Total reservoir capacity at FG is 3.75 million acre-feet, compared to 34 million at Mead and 24.3 million at Powell.
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