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The water surface elevation on January 7th was 6016.90 feet above sea level (23.10 feet below the top of the spillway gates). The elevation will likely decline until March and then increase during the spring runoff. Unless conditions improve substantially over the next several months, water surface elevations this summer will likely be about 6022 feet above sea level. Open forum discussions on Flaming Gorge operations will take place at the next "Flaming Gorge Working Group" meeting to be held in January, 2002. The meeting will be held on January 10th at 11:00 a.m. at the Western Park Convention Center in Vernal, Utah. Working Group meetings are scheduled in January, April and August each year. Those who are interested in the operation of Flaming Gorge and those who would like to voice their concerns are encouraged to attend these meetings. For more information about the Working Group meeting please contact Ed Vidmar at 801-379-1182 or access the working group web page at: http://www.pro.uc.usbr.gov/fgwg '" ASPINALL - December unregulated inflow into Blue Mesa Reservoir was 23,000 acre-feet or 89 percent of average. The favorable storm activity during the later part of November and early December has now returned back to dry conditions. On January 7, 2002 the basin snowpack was averaging 73 percent of normal. Precipitation averages in the basin so far this water year have been 65 percent for October, 110 percent for November, and 65 percent for December. The current inflow rate into Blue Mesa Reservoir is about 350 cfs and reservoir releases are averaging about 550 cfs. Blue Mesa's present elevation is 7484.71 feet, which corresponds to a storage content of about 541,000 acre-feet. On January 4, 2002, the National Weather Service's River Forecast Center issued an inflow forecast for Blue Mesa Reservoir for the April through July runoff period. The forecast is projecting a volume nmoff into the reservoir of 500.000 acre-feet. This represents a 69 percent of average runoff for this time period. Releases from Crystal Reservoir are currently set at 600 cfs. This release rate is scheduled to remain at this level for January and possibly continuing right into the Spring runoff if conditions remain dry. The river flow below the Gunnison Diversion Tunnel corresponds directly to the total release from Crystal Reservoir since there are no tunnel diversions. The next meeting of the "Aspinall Unit Working Group" is scheduled for January 31, 2002 at 12:30 pm at the Montrose Pavillion. At this meeting, review of last Summer and Fall operations, and plans for this Winter and Spring 2002 operations viill be discussed. These meetings are open forum discussions on the Aspinall Unit reservoir operaiions 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. NA VAJO - Average daily releases from Navajo Reservoir are currently set at 500 cfs. Any change from this schedule would be due the San Juan River Basin Recovery Implementation Program. Flow recommendations call for average weekly flows of between 500 cfs and 1,000 cfs in the San Juan River endangered fish critical habitat area, Farmington to Lake Powell. Unless flows decrease in the critical habitat area, the releases from Navajo Reservoir will stay at 500 cfs through the winter and early spring months. The spring peak release is scheduled to begin during the month of May.