How much do we expect the lake to rise this spring/summer

Interesting angle on water trade offs. The few (only four come to mind) remaining coal plants in the southwest are all scheduled for closure in the not too distant future, wouldn’t be hard to look those up. Solar farms, however, are not a effective substitute for baseload coal plants. The higher electric costs of early shut down of coal plants may exceed the costs to pay farmers to abandon their fields, but I don’t know one way or the other.
 
I was in the solar biz for years....and can tell you: Solar and wind NEVER pay back their cost. That's a 'green' fallacy. Solar would be dead without govt subsidies....... AND 1) the panels are SO often damaged by weather......IE: hail... 2) Wind farms kill birds and whales (if in ocean), 3) BOTH cannot be easily recycled.....some parts can never be.

Jus sayin'..... :cool:
 
What a ridiculous take on this subject. Sure all of these things can happen to a degree but all of this is overstated in your comments. Also we already know the issues with coal and the tradeoffs to shutter the plants are well worth it. If you want comparisons with other countries check into what's happening in Australia. Sometimes progress has to made even if we have those that will kick and scream all he way. If wind power capabilities are so weak for example then why is state of the art for the industry gotten to the point where onshore turbines are in the 8-10 megawatt range and offshore in the mid twenties . Also check on how much countries of the world are adding annually. It's phenomenal.
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Ultimately, these are just numbers on a screen, could be corrections, and certainly can't compare to getting a good striper hit, turning it into a great dinner at sunset.... 😜 .......but +1.05 on 4/16 and then -1.27 and -31,743 on 4/21....is anyone else intrigued by these numbers? :unsure::unsure:

(Gotta say it is funner than watching the news these days....:rolleyes:;))

Screen Shot 2026-04-22 at 7.24.13 AM.png
 
Rainbowbridge said:
Ultimately, these are just numbers on a screen, could be corrections, and certainly can't compare to getting a good striper hit, turning it into a great dinner at sunset.... 😜 .......but +1.05 on 4/16 and then -1.27 and -31,743 on 4/21....is anyone else intrigued by these numbers? :unsure::unsure:

(Gotta say it is funner than watching the news these days....:rolleyes:;))

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You mean you didn't see that gigantic upside-down waterfall at the dam yesterday as six days worth of releases turned around and jumped back in the lake?
More seriously, these #s are clearly not reality, and I'm as curious as anyone to know where they came from. But I could say the same about many pronouncements in the news these days.
 
BartsPlace said:
By all means, go do some research and let us know what you find. We don't need to fill the site with conjecture.
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I went and did some research. The bottom right corner of the lakepowell.water-data.com website has a link for "Lake Powell Source Data". I went to that link (40-Day Data | Water Operations | UC Region | Bureau of Reclamation) and the numbers there are different than those on the water-data page since at least the end of March. The official USBR numbers have recent increases only on April 3 (0.20') and April 5 (.05'), and have no daily decreases bigger than 0.17' (on April 17 and 21). The current USBR figure for April 21 is 3526.98'. So whatever is going on, it's not USBR's doing.
 
BartsPlace said:
By all means, go do some research and let us know what you find. We don't need to fill the site with conjecture.
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Bart, research for me is asking folks who know more......(wordlings) and can point me in the right direction.....wasn't trying to fill the site with conjecture......just asking questions from folks who know more than me about websites, etc.
 
Link to USBR's update on the Flaming Gorge releases:

Flaming Gorge | Water Operations | UC Region | Bureau of Reclamation

Bureau of Reclamation - Managing water and power in the West
www.usbr.gov www.usbr.gov

Translating what it says for the summer and Lake Powell:
  • They plan to drop FG by about 12.5 feet through September, which will mean about 450 kaf released over that time.
  • That's about 8 feet of elevation for Lake Powell.
  • By itself that wouldn't save Lake Powell from dropping to minimum power pool by September.
  • The reduced releases from Lake Powell through September are about three times as large as the FG release.
  • In other words, come September 75% of the help is from reduced Powell releases, 25% of the help is from Flaming Gorge.
Since that page is dynamic, here's a capture of the relevant parts at moment:

Between 660,000 and one million acre-feet of additional water is being delivered from Flaming Gorge Reservoir to Lake Powell through April 2027 to help keep Lake Powell above critical elevations.

When these supplemental releases began, Flaming Gorge Reservoir was approximately 83% full, holding approximately 3.1 maf of water. The increased downstream deliveries are estimated to lower the reservoir’s elevation by roughly 12.5 feet through September 2026.

Reclamation and its partners are working to reduce recreational impacts as much as possible. It is anticipated that all of the boat ramps at Flaming Gorge Reservoir will remain accessible during the 2026 summer season (through September 2026).
 
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