OCR Text |
Show Colorado River runoff expected to be high The outlook for the coming spring runoff is good to excellent ex-cellent over the entire Upper Colorado River Basin since April 1 snowpack measurements measure-ments indicate well above average av-erage water storage in mountain moun-tain snowpack, the Bureau of Reclamation announced today. The probable April through July runoff from the Basin a-bove a-bove Lees Ferry should be a-bout a-bout 10G percent of normal or 9.0 million acre-feet. This forecast Is based on the seasonal sea-sonal accumulation of precipitation precip-itation to April 1 at 58 stations sta-tions and April 1 snow measurement meas-urement at 48 mountainous snow courses within the water, shed. If the amount forecast Is realized, Lake Powell behind Glen Canyon Dam will rise to about elevation 3586 feet a-bove a-bove mean sea level, with 10.9 million acre-feet of active storage, stor-age, by mid-summer which Ls 42 feet above the present lake level and 36 feet above the all-Urn high reached in August Au-gust 1968. The planned releases re-leases from Lake Powell for water year 1909 will be about 8.8 million acre-feet. For the next three years thereafter, annual releases should be hear this amount In order to fulfill the Colorado River Compact requirement of delivery de-livery of 75 million acre-feet to the Lower Basin in the 19G3-1972 19G3-1972 decade. The entire release will be used to generate power for power customers in both the Upper and Lower Basins. |