From The Pagosa Sun (Chris Mannara):
Local lake levels have seen minimal increases since last week, per a press release from Pagosa Area Water and Sanitation District Manager Justin Ramsey.
Hatcher Lake is sitting at 31 inches from full as of Feb. 4, com- pared to last week’s total of 34 inches.
Stevens Lake remains at last week’s total of 133 inches from full. Lake Pagosa has risen slightly, going from 24 inches from full to
23 inches from full.Village Lake sits at 12 inches from full, compared to 14 inches from full last week.
Lake Forest is 4 inches from full, when last week it was 6 inches from full.
There is even a bit more lake water available for treatment and delivery this week, with 74.7 per- cent being available this week when last week there was only 73.8 percent available.
Total diversion flows have dipped to a total amount of 5 cubic feet per second (cfs), down from the 6 cfs total that had been consistent in previous weeks.
The Four Mile diversion still has a flow of 3 cfs; however, the West Fork Diversion flow has dropped from 3 cfs to 2 cfs.
Within the press release itself, Ramsey explains that the West Fork diversion flow dropped intentionally due to two things. The first reason is that production had been reduced at that diversion, leading to the gate at the West Fork diversion being closed, the press release explains.
In addition to reduced production, the press release indicates that in previous weeks, the estimate of the West Fork diversion flow being at 3 cfs may have been a little too high, so the 2 cfs marker is a little closer to accurate.
Once again, the press release notes that Four Mile flows are inconsistent due to fluctuating river flows and ice dams.
From Jan. 25 through Jan. 31 this year, water production totaled 10.23 million gallons.
Contributing to that total is the Snowball water treatment plant, which produced 3.06 million gallons, and the Hatcher water treatment plant, which produced 7.17 million gallons.
Last year, from Jan. 25 through Jan. 31, water production totaled 9.22 million gallons.
Last week’s water production totals, which encompassed Jan. 18 through Jan. 24, totaled only 10.06 million gallons.
Snow water equivalency (SWE) totals are up from last week, with totals being recorded at 15.1 inches as of Feb. 4, up from last week’s total of 13.7.
The SWE median has also risen only slightly, going from 19.2 inches to 19.5 inches this week.
The median and averages are based on data from 1981 through 2010.
Those two increases have also increased the SWE percentage of median this week, with the SWE being 77.4 percent of median currently, compared to last week’s 71.4 percent of median.
Precipitation totals have risen from 18 inches to 19.4 inches an the average has also increased from 21.2 inches to 22.4.
Currently precipitation totals are 86.6 percent of median, up from 84.9 percent of median.
Ramsey indicated in an interview with The SUN that he hopes that SWE data will break above 80 percent with snow in the forecast this week.