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month of February. The current April through July unregulated inflow forecast is 1,000,000 acre- feet (84% of average). Based on this forecast, the reservoir elevation will likely increase to approximately 6024 feet above sea level by August of2005. Releases will likely remain at 1000 cfs for the remainder of March, April and May. A peak release will be scheduled this spring to coincide with the peak flows on the Yampa River as described in the 1992 Biological Opinion on the Operation of Flaming Gorge Dam (1992 Biological Opinion). Details regarding this spring peak release are being developed. Hourly fluctuating releases for power generation are occurring from Flaming Gorge Dam. These fluctuations are limited such that flows measured at the Jensen gage on the Green River do not deviate outside of a 25% window about the mean daily flow as described in the 1992 Biological Opinion. The next "Flaming Gorge Working Group" meeting is to be held on April 20th, 2005 in Vernal, Utah at 10:00 a.m. Please note that this date has changed from previously published dates. The location ofthe meeting will be at the Western Park Convention Center. The Working Group is a forum for information exchange between Reclamation and all other parties associated with the operation of Flaming Gorge Reservoir. The public is encouraged to attend and express their concerns and interests with regard to the operation of Flaming Gorge Reservoir. For more information about the Working Group please contact Ed Vidmar at 801-379-1182. ASPINALL - February unregulated inflow into Blue Mesa Reservoir was 20,000 acre-feet or 88 percent of average. Hydrologic conditions are improving as basin precipitation and snowpack continues to increase. On March 8, 2005 the basin snowpack was averaging 140 percent. For most oflast fall month's average precipitation was above normal. The wet trend continued into January, recorded precipitation was almost double the monthly average, which was recorded at 190 percent of average. February Precipitation was average. The current inflow rate into Blue Mesa Reservoir is about 400 cfs and reservoir releases are averaging about 900 cfs. Blue Mesa's present elevation is 7472.47 feet, which corresponds to a storage content of about 453,000 acre-feet. On March 2,2005, the National Weather Service's River Forecast Center issued an update for the seasonal runoff volume forecast for April through July. The forecast is for 805,000 acre-feet, or 112 percent of normal inflow into Blue Mesa for that time period. Based on this forecast, Blue Mesa Reservoir is estimated to fill during this year's spring runoff. With this projected runoff forecast for the Gunnison River Basin, reservoir releases from Crystal Dam will be increasing next week. However, before the flows increase, we will have a temporary decrease in flows starting March 9, due to the need of Uncompahgre Valley Water Users needing to do maintenance work on their diversion dam below Crystal. Flows from Crystal will be reduced from 1,000 cfs to 650 cfs during the weekend (March 11-13). On Monday, march 14, reservoir releases will be increased to back to 1,000 cfs. Later that week we anticipate reservoir release to increase to around 1,500 cfs. Current flows in the river are now 1,000 cfs. The next meeting of the "Aspinall Unit Working Group" will be held on Friday, April 22, 2005 at 1 :00 PM at Reclamation's Office in Grand Junction, Colorado. Review oflast fall and winter reservoir operations, and plans for this spring and next summer 2005 operations will be discussed. These meetings are open forum discussions on the Aspinall Unit reservoir operations with many interested groups participating. Anyone needing further information about these meetings should contact Dan Crabtree in the Grand Junction Area Office at (970) 248-0652.