Pine River Irrigation District

Friday Afternoon, Nov 13th Update

The Reservoir elevation is still dropping. Capacity is about to go below 113,000 acre feet(af). This is approximately 10,000 af less than our peak on Nov 5th. That equates to an almost 4 foot drop in elevation. Inflows continue to drop and all flows are still on a positive track.

The release is near 1,450 cubic feet per second (cfs) and should stay at that level until Monday, unless another data analysis requires an adjustment. Both the DWR and USGS gages below the reservoir have issues, but are tracking well enough with the reservoir releases. Those three gages will have their ratings rebuilt over time. Values could conflict with each other depending on the totals in the river over the next few months. Both DWR and the USGS are working on long term fixes. They are also performing additional fixes on numerous other gages throughout the region and are still putting in long hours. Thanks for their assistance as always.

PRID, along with the BOR and other experts, are calculating data every day to keep up with the continuing changes in the weather and conditions downstream of the reservoir.

There is a storm arriving this evening for about 24 hours. Please review the NOAA, Weather Service websites for information on the snow and rain possibilities. The weather for Saturday evening thru Monday evening looks clear. The National Weather Service is giving daily updates at the La Plata County Emergency Management Meetings to assist all participants in the area.

On Monday we will reevaluate based on the next storms arrival late on Monday. The storage reduction over the last 8 days, has given some flexibility on the releases throughout future storms.

Thanks for your attention, have a nice weekend