The Flush is a go.....

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The good news is that this high flow experiment will not increase the overall amount of water released from the reservoir in the water year. The water managers will compensate throughout the year to make up for the three high volume days...
 
What a choice to make in the middle of a drought, and the lake is 108 feet low, 45% of capacity? Someone is counting on mother nature to make up for it.

How many vertical feet of water does that translate to ? 5-10?
 
That water was going to Mead regardless of drought or our complaining, it's just going all at once as opposed to being spread over the water year. We call Colorado good "Next Year" country. Meaning that things will always be better "Next Year". Sometimes we're right, sometimes we're wrong, but we always say it. Growing up on a dryland pinto bean farm, we lived on the hopes of having a "better" crop or higher prices "Next Year". Optimism is your friend, there's no future in pessimism.
 
John P Funk said:
dryland pinto bean farm
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Farmers are the only people that gamble everything they own, every year, on something they can't control-the weather- BUT, without them we wouldn't eat!

In reading the water reports we've been below average 14 of the last 18 years IIRC. There was a reason why the "ancient ones" (used to be the Anisazi) died out in this area. Could it have been a decades long drought? Maybe we're back to that time period now?
 
And it wipes out the food base for the trout in the river by disrupting the sand beds where all the insects grow.
 
Powelldreamer said:
I am really wondering out of curiosity how the marinas deal with the rapid elevation decline especially in the buoy fields.
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The marinas have a harbor crew who's only job is repair, maintenance, and adjustment of the docks and buoy fields. It's usually just a matter of tightening or loosening winches depending on which way the water is going (rising or falling). Occasionally they might have to reset anchors if they run out of cable. And it's not like the water is dropping 20 feet in a day. It's usually quite gradual so it's not so hard to keep up with. When the water is rising or falling a foot or more a day then I imagine they are a bit busier!
 
If anyone gets pictures of the dam during the flush, they might be pretty cool to see. Please post them if you get any. Thanks.
 
Just search Glen Canyon Dam and you will find articles and videos of the flush. The lake dropped 0.42 feet yesterday, compared to the previous few days of about 0.15. So, my guess is that the 4 day flush will drop the lake less than 2 feet.
 
Trix said:
Just search Glen Canyon Dam and you will find articles and videos of the flush. The lake dropped 0.42 feet yesterday, compared to the previous few days of about 0.15. So, my guess is that the 4 day flush will drop the lake less than 2 feet.
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Perhaps the most disheartening part of this is from the Lake Powell Water Database:

Powell is down -36.92 feet from one year ago

That's about the amount of water we *didn't* get last year from the non-winter.

Tiff
 
They say that the water they are releasing will be replenished like the flush never happened. Obviously they can predict exactly how much snowpack/water is coming this winter. geez.

The way I see it, if I drop a dime off a bridge, does that dime get replaced when I get change from a new purchase? No. That dime is forever gone no matter how many new dimes I get in change.

Yes, I do agree that everyone in the Southwest is in extreme drought and Mead does need water too but that is already regulated. But, exactly why do the sandy beaches need to be moved downstream exactly?

So, if this is an "experiment" and the right people consider it a success, how many more can we see in future for Lake Powell???? Food for thought right there.
 
It has already happened 5-6 times or more. It does not affect the total amount of water moved from lake Powell to lake mead. As stated above, the water was going to Mead regardless, for compliance with allocation agreements. Whether it snows or not, that water would not have remained in lake Powell.
 
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