Board Meeting 02/16/1984

• Board Meeting Date: 2/16/1984
• Description: Minutes, Agenda, Memorandums February 16, 1984
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Meeting

•
Mr. J. William McDonald 2
made later in the year when the magnitude of the 1984 runoff would be
known. They also suggested that further studies should be performed
to fully analyze the impacts of having such extra storage space.
At the December 7, 1983, meeting in Las Vegas, we accepted formal
comments from the Basin States, other Federal agencies, water user
entities, and private citizens on our proposed 1984 operating plan.
The position of the States' representatives was that they fully sup-
ported the plan in terms of large releases through March to provide
extra storage space in 1984, but that it was inappropriate to make a
decision at that time regarding a January 1, 1985, storage level since
operating year 1984 ends on September 30, 1984. We indicated that
further written comments would be accepted, and that we would inform
the States and other interests of our final 1984 operating plan early
in 1984. We also presented a proposal for studying various opera-
tional alternatives for the Colorado River reservoirs in 1984, so that
we would have the benefit of those studies in developing operating
plans for 1985 and future years.
The final 1984 operating plan is as follows: releases greater than
minimum downstream requirements will be made through March in order to
reach a level of system storage space by April 1 that would enable the
reservoirs to handle a heavy volume of runoff without requiring
spillway flows at Glen Canyon Dam and without requiring damaging flood
releases from Hoover, Davis, and Parker Dams. Releases in the period
April-July will be based on actual runoff conditions but will result
in greater available space on August 1 than the minimum flood control
requirement of 1.5 maf. Under the current full reservoir conditions,
the "602(a) Storage" requirement is not the criterion governing the
release of water in 1984.
Under assumed upper quartile runoff, April-July Lake Powell inflow
130 percent of average, the 1984 operating plan would have maintained
Hoover Dam releases at about 23,000 cubic feet per second (cfs)
through March, with an April 1 system storage space of about 8.0 maf.
Releases averaging about 22,000 cfs would have continued through the
remainder of water year 1984, resulting in an end-of-year storage of
23.8 maf in Lake Mead. Lake Powell end-of-year storage would be
23.5 maf. System storage space would be about 4.4 maf on August 1 and
about 5.8 maf on September 30. Maximum releases from Parker Dam would
be 21,500 cfs, and no flooding would occur along the lower Colorado
River.
However, the January forecast for April-July inflow to Lake Powell was
13.0 maf, which is 174 percent of the normal 7.46 maf spring runoff.
This is approximately an upper decile inflow. The high forecast required
us to increase our releases from Hoover Dam to an average 31,000 cfs
for January. Parker Dam releases were increased to about 30,000 cfs.