From email from Reclamation (Kara Lamb):
Just in time for the holidays, annual maintenance on the east slope of the Colorado-Big Thompson Project is wrapping up. Today, Friday December 17, we started running water through the southern power arm of the C-BT. We will continue to “water up” the east slope portion of the system through next week.
Lake Estes, which has remained fairly static through our maintenance projects, will drop a few feet over the weekend as we begin delivering water to Pinewood Reservoir. The release from Olympus Dam to the Big Thompson River remains unchanged at about 20 cfs.
By Monday, December 20, Pinewood Reservoir should be back to a few feet below full capacity. We have completed our work on the Bald Mountain Pressure Tunnel and started moving water to Pinewood this morning.
We are still drawing some water from Carter Lake to generate at the Flatiron Power Plant, but anticipate that to end by Tuesday, December 21. At that time, we will begin to refill Carter for the 2011 water year.
Inflow to Horsetooth has remained around 100 cfs for the past couple of weeks. It will bump up slightly later next week to around 120 cfs. It is currently at a water level elevation of about 5387 feet.
More Colorado-Big Thompson Project coverage here.