NAVAJO – Reclamation decreased the release from Navajo Reservoir on Tuesday, October 7 thby 200 cfs, bringing the total reservoir release down from 700 cfs to 500 cfs.
Releases are made for the authorized purposes of the Navajo Unit, and to attempt to maintain a target base flow through the endangered fish critical habitat reach of the San Juan River ( Farmington to Lake Powell ). The San Juan River Basin Recovery Implementation Program recommends a target base flow of between 500 cfs and 1,000 cfs through the critical habitat area. The target base flow is calculated as the weekly average of gaged flows throughout the critical habitat area, therefore daily flows of less than 500 cfs may occur at some gages.
Precipitation for the month of December in the San Juan River basin was 230 percent of average. Unregulated inflow into Navajo Reservoir during the month of December was 19,000 acre-feet, or 76 percent of average. Currently, the daily reservoir inflow is averaging about 300 cfs. Diversions for NIIP have currently been shut down for the winter. The reservoir water surface elevation is currently at 6054.14 feet, which corresponds to a storage content of about 1,275,000 acre-feet.
On January 6, 2009, the National Weather Service’s River Forecasting Center issued its first seasonal April through July unregulated inflow forecast for Navajo Reservoir. The forecasted inflow is for 900,000 acre-feet, or 115 percent of average.
To view the most current reservoir elevation, content, inflow and release, click on: Navajo Reservoir Data.
A public meeting on Navajo Reservoir operations will be held on Tuesday, January 27, 2009 at 1:00 p.m. at the Farmington Civic Center . At this meeting, review of last summer and fall 2008 reservoir operations, and plans for this winter and spring 2009 operations will be discussed. These are open forum discussions on the operation of Navajo Reservoir with many interested groups participating. Anyone interested in the general operation of the reservoir is encouraged to attend. Please contact Pat Page in Reclamation's Durango , Colorado Office at (970) 385-6560 for information about these meetings or the daily operation of Navajo Reservoir. To view minutes from the last Navajo Operations Meeting, click on: Meeting Notes.
Paul Davidson
Updated
January 8, 2009
Email comments/inquires to: ResourceMgr@uc.usbr.gov