January Water Report Released

Spanish Fork Water Commissioner’s Report
Strawberry Water Users Association
Board Meeting

January 12, 2012
________________________________________
Precipitation at the Spanish Fork Power Plant for the month of December 2011 was .29 in. compared to 5.17 in. December 2011. Precipitation at the Power Plant was one of the lowest recorded for December. Average precipitation for the month of December is 1.84 inches. Ground water content is also very low. River flow has declined as well.
Today, January 11, 2012, the natural flow of the Spanish Fork River is approximately 77 cfs. Last year at this time the Spanish Fork River was flowing about 70 cfs. Delivery from Strawberry Reservoir today is approximately 35 cfs for minimum fish flows. Total flow in the Spanish Fork River today is about 112 cfs.
Snow pack last year was at near record levels for this time of year. This year snowpack is also at near record levels, they are at near low record levels. Snow water content is very low in the entire State of Utah, and all of the sites in the Spanish Fork Drainage are also extremely low as well. I have included a graph that illustrates the possible scenarios this spring. At this time, it doesn’t look good, but we have a lot of winter left.

Vandalism
January 4, 2012 we had an incident that resulted in one of the two High Line gates opening to 100%. This shut down the Power Plant for a time and caused some hurried action. Chad Knapp, Power Plant operator surveyed the situation, checked the Diversion Dam and Power Canal before finding the open canal gate. It is unclear what happened, but it is believed that vandals probably switched the controller to local and started the gate up and abandoned the site leaving the gate to open until it hit the limit switch. About 100 cfs went down the High Line canal for about one and one half hour, but no damage was evident. We will now disconnect all power to this site during the non-irrigation season.
John F. Mendenhall,
Spanish Fork Water Commissioner