Lake Conditions and Update

Another busy weekend is over, but this time at least we made time for some sailing; with Tadpole back from his backpacking trip it was our first family sail on Heron Lake with "Black Magic". I also played with the kayak, worked on the marina, and moved a couple of tons of dirt at our cabin.

Heron Lake:
192,730 acre feet as of Monday morning, June 19, elevation 7143.31. Up just 117 acre feet and a third of on inch in 72 hours as spring runoff is essentially over, with the Azotea Tunnel and Willow Creek flowing at only 30 to 60 cubic feet per second. Still, Heron has 75% as much water as Elephant Butte Lake in southern NM, though only 13% as much as Navajo Lake.

Elephant Butte Lake:
254,652 acre feet, 4317.28 feet elevation above benchmark, down 11 inches and 8,355 acre feet in 72 hours. This morning, the rate of water release increased to about 1,950 c.f.s. from the previous level of about 1,560 c.f.s. 209,812 a.f. at elevation 4311.96' is projected for June 30th in the operations plan.

Other Lakes:
Navajo, 1,480,621 a.f., down 3 inches and 3,637 a.f. in 72 hours.
El Vado, 90,076 a.f., down 3.22 feet and 6,538 a.f.
Abiquiu, 158,863 a.f., down 2 inches and 485 a.f.
Cochiti, 48,678 a.f., down 8 inches and 800 a.f.
Conchas, 128,284, down 1599 a.f.

At the current rate, about 10% of all of New Mexico's reservoir water is depleted each month. Some reservoirs will be nearly dry by late summer, though Navajo and Heron should be very usable for quite some time.


Water flow through Heron Lake, in acre feet, by month:

March
125 Rio Grande water in, 92 out
706 San Juan-Chama water in, 15,372 out, 187 loss
-347 Rio Grande water at end of month
153,971 San Juan-Chama water at end of month
7132.42 ' elevation

April
87 Rio Grande water in, -86 out
17,763 San Juan-Chama water in, 9,131 out, 607 loss
-346 Rio Grande water at end of month
161,996 San Juan Chama water at end of month
7134.86 ' elevation

May
581 Rio Grande water in, -97 out
25,623 San Juan-Chama water in, 1566 loss
138 Rio Grande water at end of month
186,053 San Juan-Chama water at end of month
7141.60 ' elevation at end of month