RRFW Riverwire – Glen Canyon Dam Releases Nov-Jan
November 2, 2022
The Bureau of Reclamation has released the flows from Glen Canyon Dam for November 2022.
The November flows will be based on a release of 500,000 acre-feet of water. That will result in a fluctuation from a low of approximately 6,300 cubic feet per second (cfs) during the early morning hours to a high of 9,837 cfs during the weekday afternoon and evening hours and a peak of 10,487 cfs on Sunday.
For December, Reclamation states they anticipate a release 600,000 acre-feet of water through the Dam. That equates to a flow of about 7,000 cfs during the early morning hours to around 12,000 cfs during the weekday afternoon and evening hours.
For January 2023, the 24-month operation plan for the Colorado River projects a release of 673,000 acre-feet. That release equates roughly to a flow of about 7,600 cfs during the early morning hours to around 13,640 cfs during the weekday afternoon and evening hours.
For the second fall in a row, the Bureau of Reclamation has cancelled the November high flow, citing 4 reasons:
-An increased risks to benefitting non-native fish, including the potential to transport juvenile smallmouth bass downstream into the Grand Canyon.
-Challenges and risks associated with reallocating large volumes of water for longer duration HFEs and uncertainties and risks associated with exacerbating low reservoir elevations (e.g. lower annual minimum and risk of falling below minimum power pool).
-Impacts to hydropower production
-Increased risk of fish entrainment at lower reservoir elevations.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
RIVERWIRE is a free service to the community of river lovers from River Runners for Wilderness. To sign-up for future Riverwires, send an e-mail address to riverwire@rrfw.org and we'll add it to the RRFW Riverwire e-mail alerts list.
Join RRFW's many Facebook discussion groups to stay abreast of and participate in the latest river issues.
The Colorado Basin group is at https://www.facebook.com/groups/GCRRaftersPaddlersSupsSwimmers/
The Upper basin group is at https://www.facebook.com/groups/utahrafters/
The Grand Canyon group is at https://www.facebook.com/groups/raftgc/
General River News is at https://www.facebook.com/groups/RiverNews/
Check out RRFW's Rafting Grand Canyon Wiki for free information on how to organize a Do-It-Yourself Grand Canyon rafting trip at https://rrfw.org/RaftingGrandCanyon/Main_Page
Check out new store items and donate at the RRFW Store! RRFW is a non-profit all-volunteer project of Living Rivers. https://rrfw.org/catalog
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~