The office is receiving calls asking when we are going to start the irrigation season. We do not currently have a start date, as it will depend on what happens with the weather. We hope to have a wet spring which will allow us to hold off as long as possible. However, if it turns out hot and dry, we will need to consider starting the season earlier.
The current reservoir elevations are as follows:
Howard Prairie is at 25,715 acre feet or 42% of capacity
Hyatt Lake is at 8,491 acre feet or 52% of capacity
Emigrant Lake is at 19,869 acre feet or 51% of capacity
The current total storage is 54,075 acre feet or 47% of capacity. On this date last year, the total storage was 28,064 acre feet or 24% of capacity.
The reservoir levels are looking better than they have for several years, however that is mainly due to the water we were able to carryover from last irrigation season. The snowpack this winter has been considerably less than we had last year. For example, our measuring site at Howard Prairie averaged 40” of snow last February and it only averaged 3” last month. We rely on the snowmelt every spring to start the irrigation season so that we can delay releasing stored water from the reservoirs.
We will update the website as the Board of Directors gets closer to deciding on the start date.