Friends of the Bighorn River

Kira Finkler, Reclamation's Deputy Comissioner

The Bureau of Reclamation's Kira Finkler, Deputy Commissioner for External and Intergovernmental Affairs, will be visiting Reclamation's Yellowtail project for two days at the end of this month.  Ms. Finkler was invited by Friends of the Bighorn River and Trout Unlimited to visit Montana, and we are pleased and honored that she has accepted our invitation to see the area first hand, and help us development and implement strategies for resolving several critical issues with regards to Reclamation's Montana Area Office reservoir management. 

At present, plans are for her to visit the Bighorn River, Ft. Smith, Yellowtail Dam and the Lovell area September 27, and attend the Long Term Issues Group meeting in Billings on the 28th.

Updates to her itinerary and schedule will be posted here as they become available, as will more information on the Long Term Issues Group meeting which is open to the public.

You may view Kira Finkler's bio here.

With inflows dropping off significantly to around 2,000cfs, and with the Bighorn Canal still flowing at capacity, Reclamation feels it is necessary to reduce flows to minimums (2,500cfs). Currently, the lake elevation is just a little bit more than three feet below below full pool, and river releases are at 3,000cfs. This reduction confirms that Reclamation plans to continue to operate under the 20 foot window.

On Wednesday at 4pm, flows will drop from 3,000cfs to 2,750cfs.
On Thursday at 4pm, flows will drop from 2,750cfs to 2,500cfs.

Updated:  3:18pm

With runoff and releases from upstream reservoirs decreasing, Bighorn river releases will be dropped to what will hopefully be the final cuts for summer:

On Friday, river releases will be reduced from 4,200cfs to 3,850cfs.
On Monday, river releases will be reduced from 3,850cfs to 3,500cfs.

Yesterday, the USGS graph (found here) showed a 1,000cfs drop in river releases when a drop of 500cfs was indicated. The good news is the river did indeed only dropped 500cfs as planned.

You may recall back when releases had climbed to 9,500cfs, a manual measurement near the Afterbay indicated flows were actually 9,000cfs, a discrepancy of 500cfs.  Since the new gaging equipment at Afterbay had not been calibrated at flows that high, this slight discrepancy of 500cfs was not a surprise.  However, to properly operate and calculate other parameters, an offset of 500cfs along with an increase in flows were put in place to balance things.  Yesterday, this offset was removed from the system but briefly appeared in the USGS calculations for plotting the graph of river releases.

In summary, on Monday, the river dropped only the planned 500cfs.

With continued reductions from upstream reservoirs, streamflows in to Bighorn Lake continue to gradually decrease, requiring further reductions to river releases.

At 4pm on Tuesday, river releases will be reduced from 5,220cfs to 4,700cfs.
At 4pm on Wednesday, river releases will be reduced from 4,700cfs to 4,200cfs.

Many of you noticed the river dropping 1,000cfs today, then bouncing back up 500cfs.  I was floating the river today (fishing and surveying the bank erosion with Mr. Johnson), and will inquire with Reclamation on Tuesday morning and post the findings here.

With inflows continuing to drop off sharply along with some other western hydropower generation issues, river releases will continue to be gradually reduced. Friends of the Bighorn recognize and greatly appreciate the efforts of Reclamation to reduce releases gradually.

On Sunday at 8am river releases will be reduced from 6,220cfs to 5,720cfs.
On Monday at 8am river releases will be reduced from 5,720cfs to 5,220cfs.

It is anticipated further reductions will continue on Tuesday.

As these reductions continue, we would appreciate photos and commentary on stream bank erosion to help document the consequences of the prolonged river releases, higher lake elevations and this extraordinarily wet spring.  Please send any information you have to bighornriver.org@gmail.com

As anticipated, Reclamation will continue to decrease releases to the river over the next few days.

At 4pm today, releases will drop from 8,900cfs to 7,900cfs.
At 8am on Friday, releases will drop from 7,900cfs to 6,900cfs
At 8am on Saturday, releases will drop from 6,900cfs to 6,220cfs

When questioned as to the reason for the morning cuts rather than the preferred afternoon cuts, Reclamation stated the reason for the morning cuts on Fri and Sat are because the dam operators (who work a 4 day week and are off on Fridays) need to be called in special to effect the changes, and it is more convenient for them to make those changes in the morning.

Reclamation has indicated that the high elevation snowmelt is essentially over, causing inflows to drop off sharply. To continue evacuating storage from the flood pool but provide for adequate storage during the rest of the summer, river releases will need to be reduced.

At 4pm today, river releases were reduced from 9,900cfs to 8,900cfs.

Further reductions in releases are expected in the coming days.

Early word from Reclamation indicates flows will gradually start down tomorrow afternoon. Dropping the flows now will help guarantee higher releases through the summer.

Look for the official word tomorrow evening after the Carp Tourney!

To help meet irrigation demands, releases to the Bighorn Canal will increase 100cfs, and releases to the river will drop from 10,000cfs to 9,900cfs in 50cfs increments beginning this afternoon and ending tomorrow morning.

Bighorn Lake filled the conservation pool (lake elevation 3,640ft) at approximately 2:15 this morning.

During the last few weeks, Reclamation engineers have done a commendable job keeping river flows steady despite the recent unstable weather, especially since starting with such a high (and unprecedented) early spring lake level.

However, recent torrential rains across the region have necessitated a slight additional release to the river to control the rate of fill of Bighorn Lake. At 5pm this afternoon, flows were bumped an additional 500cfs to bring river releases to 10,000cfs.

Thanks to everyone who called and/or submitted river reports and observations all of which are most helpful and will be passed along to the appropriate agencies.

A very happy Father's Day to you Dad's this weekend!
 

Word has come from Reclamation that BIA requested a slight decrease in releases to the Bighorn Canal. That 50cfs reduction was sent to the river today at 3:00pm.

While no major changes are expected, the weekly stakeholders conference call is tomorrow, and anything newsworthy will be reported like always.

Enjoy the nice weather!

ps:  If you been on the river, we appreciate hearing the latest fishing and river conditions, as well as side-channel and bank status. Send your observation to bighornriver.org@gmail.com Thanks!

Here's the latest from Reclamation:

"As a result of recent precipitation combined with snowmelt runoff in the Bighorn Basin, inflows into Bighorn Lake have increased to over 10,000 cfs. WYAO also plans to increase releases out of Boysen Reservoir by 1,000 cfs, in anticipation of increased inflows into Boysen Reservoir. To control the rate of fill of storage in Bighorn Lake, the following operations are required at Yellowtail Dam and Powerplant."

At 4pm on Wednesday, May 26, river releases will increase from 8,000cfs to 8,750cfs.
At 4pm on Thursday, May 27, river releases will increase from 8,750cfs to 9,500cfs.

For those who follow the river closely, note that the Bighorn Canal began receiving 100cfs today.

Additional precipitation has dramatically raised inflow forecasts for Bighorn Lake. While the official water order change has not bee released, look for the following changes to river releases:

Starting this afternoon at 4pm, river releases will increase from 6,500cfs to 7,000cfs.
On Tuesday morning at 8am, releases will increase from 7,000cfs to 7,500cfs.
On Tuesday afternoon at 4pm, releases will increase from 7,500cfs to 8,000cfs.

We knew Mother Nature was fickle. Now we can be certain she has a sense of humor!

Western Area Power Administration (WAPA) has asked Reclamation for a reduction in turbine releases to maintain reserves in the power generation system. In response, at 4:30pm today, river releases were reduced slightly from 6,000cfs to 5,700cfs.

Good news!  Releases are expected to remain at or near 6,000cfs for the remainder of the week, barring any significant weather events.
 

As we were expecting, this just arrived from Reclamation:

"We will be increasing our river releases from the Yellowtail Afterbay Dam by an additional 500 cfs at 4:00 pm today and another 500 cfs at 8:00 am tomorrow morning.  This will bring our total release to the
river to 5,000 cfs for the weekend.  Why the change?  The storms that finished up last night were a real difference maker for the basin.  I have attached some snow water equivalent graphs which tell the story.
We need to make these adjustments now to control the reservoir rise at this time and be mindful with the warmer weather forecast for the weekend."

 

The recent storms across the Bighorn Basin has brought much needed precipitation and has dramatically increased the mountain snowpack in the basin.  With runoff approaching, Reclamation will use releases to control the rate of fill of Bighorn Lake, which is less than 10 feet from full pool. Accordingly, river releases will be increased from 3,250cfs to 4,000cfs over the next two days.

Specifically, flows will increase from 3,250cfs to 3,500cfs on Wednesday at 8:00am.
On Wednesday at 4pm, flows will increase from 3,500cfs to 3,750cfs.
Finally, on Thursday, flows will again increase from 3,750cfs to 4,000cfs.

It is anticipated that additional increases will be required by the first of next week, if not sooner, and flows may be increased to as high as 5,000cfs.

As always, the latest updates will be posted here.

Looks like the Automated Gate Control System is back online. The old system measured the river stage and calculated releases, and was susceptible to errors whenever algae was flourishing. This new system does NOT use river stage and will let Reclamation manage more precise releases in real time. Here's the press release from Dan Jewell:

Earlier this week Reclamation successfully conducted a Mock Failure Exercise for the Yellowtail Afterbay Dam automated gate control system.  This was the final step in our contingency planning process before placing the automated gate control system online.  Accordingly, we will be placing the automated gate control system in service for a 120-day real-time evaluation period beginning mid-morning this coming Monday, May 3. If you have any questions or concerns, do not hesitate to give me a call at 406-247-7298.

In light of the inflow forecasts a month ago, I'm delighted to share this announcement from Reclamation with you:

"Our Wyoming Area Office has notified us today that they will be making additional increases in releases from Boysen Dam to control the reservoir’s rate of fill. We will be stepping up our releases to the Bighorn River in a similar fashion so we can hold our current reservoir elevation and remain favorably poised to intercept the rule curve in early June.

This means we will be increasing our releases to the Bighorn River to 3,000 cfs on Thursday, May 6 and then increasing to 3,250 cfs on Friday, May 7. Further adjustments may be necessary this coming week."

Now that the Thing-That-Starts-With-the-23rd-letter-of-the-Alphabet has stopped, let's get out and enjoy the river!

This just came from Reclamation:

Due to changing hydrologic conditions in the Bighorn Basin, we are increasing releases to the Bighorn River from the Yellowtail Afterbay Dam.  At 5:00 p.m. MDT on April 29, 2010, releases will be adjusted from 2,000 cfs to 2,250 cfs.  We will continue to closely monitor conditions as we enter the runoff season.

This just arrived from Reclamation:

A Mock Afterbay Automated Gate Control System Failure is going to be conducted on April 27th, between 1000 hour and 1600 hour. During this exercise if the gates should fail, it will be coordinated between the Casper Control Center, and Western Area Power to maintain the Afterbay Reservoir Elevation within +/- 1 foot of the elevation when the simulated failure occurred, without changing the flows in the river downstream of the afterbay. This is in accordance with Activity Plan YTAB-SOP-04-27-2010.

If all goes well, flows should remain at or very close to 2,000cfs during this exercise.

The Bighorn River System Issues Group Meeting and Bighorn Basin Interagency Coordination Meeting (aka the Spring Planning meeting) are scheduled for this Thursday. Both meetings will be held at the Lovell Community Center this Thursday, April 8th starting at 9am. A complete agenda can be downloaded here.

The Bureau of Reclamation, at the request of, and in collaboration with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department (WGF), has scheduled a flushing flow in the Big Horn River downstream of Boysen Dam. Flows were reduced from 800 cubic feet per second (cfs) to 700 cfs in February to conserve water to provide a flushing flow in late March, according to Wyoming Area Manager, John H. Lawson.

The purpose of the flushing flow is to improve trout reproduction by flushing fine sediments from spawning gravels in the river. The flushing flow also improves insect production in the stream by opening up interstitial spaces between gravels and cobbles. The flushing flow is generally welcomed by anglers because it provides easier wading conditions. Following the flushing flow there is a reduction in floating algae.

Flows in the river below Boysen Dam will fluctuate from 700 cfs to 5000 cfs during the flushing flow. On March 30 at 2:00 a.m., the release of water from Boysen Dam will be increased to 3000 cfs and further increased to 5000 cfs at approximately 7:15 a.m. for 10 hours before being reduced gradually back to 700 cfs by approximately noon on March 31, 2010.

We're told this is nothing more than a dead battery at the gaging station below Afterbay.

Montana Area Office
Billings, Montana
Media Contact:  Paula A. Holwegner (406) 247-7300                  

For Immediate Release

Yellowtail Afterbay Gate Control System Malfunctions

At approximately 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday, July 29, the automated Yellowtail Afterbay Gate Control System experienced a malfunction which resulted in releases to the Bighorn River dropping to approximately 1,500 cfs for a brief period.

According to Montana Area Manager Dan Jewell, alarms that are built into the new system alerted staff at Yellowtail Dam who responded to the situation, and releases from the afterbay were restored back to the previous rate of 4,000 cfs by around 1:15 pm.

"We’re very much aware and concerned about the potential resource impacts this type of event can have and we try our best to ensure it doesn’t happen; but, we obviously missed something along the way this time.  Although we’ve already taken steps to ensure a similar malfunction doesn’t occur again, that doesn’t change the fact that the fishery resource was likely impacted – to what extent we won’t likely know immediately.  I’m confident the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks will be able to better assess impacts in the weeks and months ahead."

"The afterbay automation system has been undergoing pre-commissioning testing for a couple of weeks now, and as this incident demonstrates, automation systems can unfortunately be vulnerable.  We believe this malfunction was triggered by a significant electrical surge, but regardless of the cause, it points out the need for additional failsafe mechanisms in our control system."

Area Manager Dan Jewell called moments ago to confirm that a malfunction with the new gaging equipment at Afterbay caused river releases to be temporarily reduced to nearly 1,000cfs yesterday afternoon. Reclamation is looking in to the cause and details of the malfunction, and will issue a press release later today.

My goodness. Its like it never happened. Can't wait to hear Reclamation's response to all this.

Despite a lake elevation which is still five feet in the flood pool, Reclamation is reducing releases to more closely match inflows. Hopefully, with the abundance of water in the lake, BOR will provide us with river releases above established minimums for the rest of the summer.

Here's Reclamation's latest:

"Inflows into Bighorn Lake continue to decline as the releases from Boysen Reservoir is being reduced. Power generation also indicates actual canal and river flows vary from those anticipated. To slow and control the evacuation rate of storage in the exclusive flood pool, the following operation changes are required at Yellowtail Dam and Powerplant after applying the new shift."

Starting this evening at 6pm, river releases will decrease from 4,700cfs to 4,000cfs.

Apologies for the tardiness of this update.

Reclamation is still in the process of slowing the rate of evacuation now that inflows have dropped off.

On Friday at 6pm, flows were reduced from 7,500cfs to 6,300cfs.
This morning (Saturday) at 7am flows were again reduced to 5,300cfs.
On Sunday at 7am, flows will be reduced again to 4,500cfs.

This just in from Reclamation:

"Releases from Boysen Reservoir are being reduced causing inflows into Bighorn Lake to continue to decline. To slow and control the evacuation rate of storage in the exclusive flood pool, the release change originally scheduled for June 14 is hereby revised as shown below. Releases to the Bighorn River may vary as they are maintained at rates necessary to maintain daily generation at the Yellowtail powerplant near 250 MW-Hrs/day and the Afterbay level near elevation 3190."

Essentially, instead of releases dropping to 7,800cfs on Tuesday, they'll drop to 7,500cfs.

The BIA is asking for a small increase in releases to the Canal.

The release schedule listed earlier will remain in effect, except river releases will be reduced by 50cfs.

It looks like runoff is officially over. This much needed good news just came from Reclamation:

"With precipitation returning to more normal and the high elevation snowmelt essentially over, streamflows in the Bighorn River Basin are gradually declining. In response, the releases from Boysen and Buffalo Bill Reservoirs are being gradually reduced. As a result, the inflows into Bighorn Lake are decreasing. To bring relief to the Bighorn River while continuing to evacuate storage from the exclusive flood pool at Bighorn Lake, the following operation changes are required at Yellowtail Dam and Powerplant. Releases to the Bighorn River will be decreased and maintained at rates necessary to maintain daily generation at Yellowtail powerplant near 250 MW-Hrs/day and the Afterbay level near elevation 3190."

Starting today at 3pm, releases will be decreased from 12,450cfs to 11,400cfs.
On Monday, July 13, at 8am releases will be decreased from 11,400cfs to 10,200cfs.
On Monday, July 13, at 2pm releases will be decreased from 10,200cfs to 9,000cfs.
and finally
On Tuesday, July 14, at 7am releases will be decreased from 9,000cfs to 7,800cfs.

The Bighorn Canal folks are asking for a bit more water, so river releases will be decreased to accomodate them. River releases will be set at 12,400cfs.

This just arrived arrived from Reclamation:

"The BIA is planning to reduce diversions to the Bighorn Canal by 200 cfs to allow them to chemically treat the heavy algae growth in the Bighorn Canal. In response and continue slowing the rate of fill of storage in Bighorn Lake, the following operation change is required. Recent flow measurements also indicate river flows are actually higher than anticipated, resulting in a 0.0 shift. Releases to the Bighorn River will be gradually increased to near 12,600 cfs and maintained at rates necessary to maintain daily generation at Yellowtail powerplant near 250 MW-Hrs/day and the Afterbay level near elevation 3190."

In layman's terms, look for releases to increase in 50cfs increments to approximately 12,600cfs today. and then decrease in 50cfs increments back to 12,400cfs tomorrow.

Photo of the Afterbay at 12,500cfs.

BIA has requested a bit more water in the canal, so this release will be diverted from the river releases, dropping from 12,450cfs to 12,400cfs.

Friends,

What many of us predicted has come to pass. This just arrived from Reclamation:

"High elevation snowmelt runoff and increased releases out of Boysen continue to maintain inflows to Bighorn Lake near 16,700 cfs. To slow the rate of fill of storage in Bighorn Lake, releases to the Bighorn River will be gradually increased to near 12,000 cfs and maintained at rates necessary to maintain daily generation at Yellowtail powerplant near 250 MW-Hrs/day and the Afterbay level near elevation 3190."

Starting at 6pm tonight, river releases will increase from 10,000cfs to approximately 11,000cfs.
At 10am on Sunday, river releases will increase from 11,000cfs to approximately 12,000cfs.

The lake elevation is currently three feet in to the flood pool, and rising.

For those of you that are wondering if releases have ever been this high, the answer is yes, but not very often.
In July 1967, river releases were well above 12,000cfs, and often topped  24,000cfs.
In July 1970, river releases exceeded  18,500cfs for several days.
In July 1995, releases topped 14,000cfs briefly and,
in July 1991, releases went over  12,000cfs for several days.

Let's be careful out there!

-Doug