Raging River
Water release, snow melt has Rio Grande flowing at record level
Predictions of a healthy runoff season appear to be coming true, with parts of the Rio Grande in northern New Mexico flowing at record levels Wednesday.
By early afternoon, the discharge at Otowi Bridge near Española reached 3,610 cubic feet per second, its highest flow in 36 years of records and more than twice the point's mean of 1,490 cfs.
The Rio Grande is getting a little snow melt from lower elevations as temperatures warm, but the high numbers at Otowi Bridge and some other areas are largely the byproduct of an ongoing release of water from El Vado Reservoir, some federal officials said.
"We're moving water out of El Vado Reservoir ... in anticipation of the high snow melt runoff which has already started," said Leann Towne, manager of water division services for the federal Bureau of Reclamation in Albuquerque.
Added bureau spokeswoman Mary Perea Carlson, "The number (at Otowi Bridge) is a record high, but right now it is probably due to the water we are releasing. But this is a good snow year. We expect a good runoff."
Yet, even at places like the Taos Junction Bridge, which is north of where the Rio Chama and Rio Grande meet, discharge was at a record high Wednesday. At that site, flows clocked in at 1,640 csf, up from a record of 1,500 cfs set in 1989.
"There is more water in the system than there has been in quite a few years," said Richard Armijo, a snow surveyor with the Natural Resources Conservation Service.
And that's just what farmers, ranchers and river recreation enthusiasts, among others, want to hear.
"Phones are ringing off the hook, and we're selling out trips already" at Santa Fe's Kokopelli Rafting Adventures, owner John Seiner said.
"We don't know how things are going to turn out, but right now we're above average, and we expect an above-average season," he said.
Kokopelli will begin its rafting trips on April 15.
Federal forecasters said in March that runoff on the Rio Grande through New Mexico's midsection is expected to be more than 80 percent above normal. On Wednesday, Armjio predicted above-average river flows from March through July.
He said that snow pack as recently as Monday showed the Rio Chama basin at 134 percent of average and the Rio Grande basin at 136 percent.
There's still a sizable amount of water in the snow pack at higher elevations, he noted, which will be seen later in the season when it gets hotter. At Powderhorn in Taos Ski Valley, for instance, there was almost 41 inches of water in the snow pack as of late March, he said.
Generally, snow pack affects river flow levels through spring, while levels after that are the byproduct of summer rains.
