Quick Lake Update

We got a quick look at the Butte (150 miles south of Albuquerque) last night and will be at Heron (165 miles north) tonight.

Heron Lake: 7142.84' elevation, 190,918 acre feet. Up 1.8 inches and 573 a.f. in 24 hours. The Azotea Tunnel outlet has water flowing at 281 cfs, Willow Creek at 315 cfs. Most of the marina is in 17 feet of water. About a third of the marina spaces have been filled, and about another third paid for. Heron now has about 67.4% as much water as the Butte and is the state's third-largest lake. Bill Ross reports from Victor Salazar of the Bureau of Reclamation that no discharges are expected until November. (A possible exception I thought of might be some diversions by the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District.)


Elephant Butte Lake: 4320.36' elevation (above benchmark), 283,327 acre feet. Down 3.6 inches and 2,896 acre feet in 24 hours. Water is flowing out at 1,520 c.f.s., which at least is better than the 2,000 c.f.s. that had been projected in the reservoir's operating plan; if it continues at the current rate instead of the 2,000-c.f.s. rate, then the lake would have about 150,000 a.f. at the end of July instead of the 100,000 or a bit less a.f. projected in the plan.


108,731 a.f. El Vado
159,794 a.f. Abiquiu
49,719 a.f. Cochiti