River Flows Decrease Here

While counties around us are seeking disaster designation for drought, Teton County at the headwaters of the southern Idaho irrigation system is now seeing signs of the season drying out and inflows into Jackson Lake are declining.  With an average rate of less than 1600 cubic feet per second now, the Bureau of Reclamation yesterday reduced the outflow through Jackson Lake Dam by 200 cfs.  Last week, the flow of the Snake River through the Snake River Canyon was slightly less than 11-thousand cfs.  Decreased outflows from the lake are implemented in order to maintain water storage in the upper reservoirs so that resources for future irrigation downstream are still available later this summer.  Currently, there is 3.3-million acre feet of water stored in the area’s reservoirs.  Last year’s storage in the reservoirs collectively was 3.5-million acre feet and still increasing during late June with draw-down not beginning until early August.