| WORLAND, Wyo. (AP) -- As the current irrigation season winds down,
Bureau of Reclamation officials say moisture is desperately needed in
order to irrigate next year's crops in the Big Horn Basin.
"Not to be too much doom and gloom, but we're in a pretty critical
condition," said Jay Lawson, the agency's area manager in Mills.
Boysen Reservoir, from which much of the Big Horn Basin's irrigation
needs are met, is at a near-record low.
"At the end of September, Boysen was at 300,000 acre feet -- its
the second lowest level on record for September since the reservoir was
built in 1953," Lawson said. "The lowest recorded level was in
1960 when the reservoir was at about 280,000."
Lawson said a letter was to be sent out this week to Boysen water users
explaining that the last two years of low moisture and warm temperatures
have left Boysen in a precarious position as it enters another water year.
The 30-year average inflow into Boysen for the Oct. 30, 2000 to Sept.
1, 2001 water year is 1,870,000 acre feet, Lawson explained. Last year the
inflow was at 626,000 acre feet; this year only 365,000 acre feet trickled
into the reservoir.
"If you take both years and add them together it doesn't meet the
average 30-year inflow," he said.
"This past April-July snowmelt runoff period is the lowest ever on
record. That 4-month period is not only the lowest on record, it's also
only 18 percent of average."
The low inflow teamed with the above average summer temperatures dealt
a one-two punch to water users.
"The reservoir can normally hold approximately 740,000 acre feet
if full. The 30-year (reservoir level) average for Sept. 1 is 632,000.
Today the reservoir is at 310,000 acre feet, and I expect it to get down
to 300,000 by the end of the month," Lawson said.
Lawson said water releases from Boysen into the Wind River and Big Horn
River have been low all summer. During the winter months, the releases are
traditionally at 1,150 cubic feet per second.
"We started out this year at 700 cfs, and later went to 600 cfs.
We'll be going down to 400 cfs as soon as irrigators get us there ... by
the end of the month. I'll be running at 400 cfs for the entire
winter," he said.
Lawson said a winter of extraordinary snowpack would answer water
users' prayers. But he said even a normal water year will suffice.
"If we could get an inflow of 1,870,000 acre feet, an average
water year, that would really help us get back where we need to be,"
he said. "If we could just get near-normal inflow we can make it
through the summer. "But if conditions are anywhere close to this
year, I will not have enough water to meet temporary contracts next
summer."
Lawson said his agency will not have a good handle on the coming water
year until February or March, when the heaviest snow falls on mountains in
the Wind River and Bighorn ranges. |