Local Reservoirs Filling
Even as the snow-melt is winding down for another season, Jackson Lake Reservoir has risen to 88% of its capacity leaving about 100-thousand acre-feet of empty space for flood control. Mike Beus of the Minidoka Project office of the Bureau of Reclamation says forecasts for flood control operations here show below average potential, and so less water will be released now. Beus calls the contrast of flood control activity between this year and last year “impressive.” He says 2011 ranked the third highest volume in the last century while this year is actually less than average. The water stored in Jackson Lake supplies water downstream to maintain river flows in critical fisheries and to irrigate farms in Southern Idaho as the season progresses into the drier summer months. Beus says Bureau of Reclamation personnel will be on hand in Jackson Thursday to visit with interested residents about this year’s projected operations.
