Annual Operating Plan For Colorado River Reservoirs 2004

Home Browse Search

f January 7, 2004 14 Navajo Reservoir Drought conditions continued to persist in the San Juan River basin during 2003 which resulted in low runoff volumes into the basin. The April through July unregulated inflow into Navajo Reservoir in water year 2003 was 0.304 maf (375 mcm), or 39 percent of average. Water year 2003 unregulated inflow was 0.415 maf (512 mcm) or 37 percent of average. The San Juan River basin is ' continuing to experience an extended dry cycle. April through July unregulated inflow to Navajo Reservoir in water years 1999, 2000, 2001, and 2002 were 81, 44, 107, and 4 percent of average, respectively. Reservoir storage in Navajo Reservoir has been significantly reduced due to these protracted drought conditions. Reservoir live storage on September 30, 2003, was 43 percent of capacity but only 7.2 percent of active capacity. The water surface elevation at Navajo Reservoir on September 30, 2003, was 5,999.4 feet (1,828.6 meters). The final report titled Flow Recommendations for the San Juan River (Flow Recommendations), which outlines flow recommendations for the San Juan River below Navajo Dam, was completed by ' the San Juan River Basin Recovery Implementation Program (SJRIP) in May 1999. The report synthesizes research conducted on endangered fish in the San Juan River over a 7 -year period. The ' purpose of the report is to provide flow recommendations for the San Juan River that promote the recovery of the endangered Colorado pike minnow and razorback sucker, maintain important habitat for these two species as well as the other native species, and provide information for the evaluation ' of continued water development potential in the basin. It is anticipated that implementation of the Flow Recommendations, or reasonable alternative to it, will allow for a nonjeopardy biological opinion to be issued by the Service for the operations of Navajo Dam. ' Due to the severity of the drought and the hydrologic conditions in the San Juan River Basin during the spring runoff period, the Flow Recommendations did not provide for making a spring peak ' release from Navajo Reservoir in 2003. Although there was no peak release, at times higher than normal base flows were released from Navajo Reservoir during the spring and summer months during water year 2003. Releases from Navajo Reservoir from June through August of 2003 ' averaged 710 cfs (20 cros) and were as high as 1,050 cfs (30 cros) in mid -July. These releases were necessary due to decreasing flows in the San Juan River endangered fish critical habitat area (Farmington to Lake Powell). The Flow Recommendations call for an average weekly flow of between 500 cfs (14 cros) and 1,000 cfs (28 cros) in this reach of the river. With minimal tributary inflow to the San Juan River below Navajo Dam (primarily the Animas River) in 2003, this flow, as ' well as the flow required to meet downstream demands and natural losses, had to be made up almost entirely of releases from Navajo Reservoir. In September of 2002, in response to a request by the Navajo Nation, coupled with much below t average streamflow forecasts in the San Juan River basin, Reclamation initiated discussions with the Navajo Unit Contractors (Jicarilla Apache and Navajo Nations, Hammond Conservancy District, and t Public Service Company of New Mexico), along with the State ofNew Mexico and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, to develop a cooperative solution to deal with the extreme drought conditions in the San Juan River basin. Noncontract, direct -flow diverters were subsequently brought into the