# Navajo Operations Change



## Droboat (May 12, 2008)

*Oops! Wrecked Did it Again*

*Bluff Discharge, cubic feet per second* 
Most recent instantaneous value: 464 09-03-2014 17:00 MDT

Too little, too late, too often. Boaters and fish lose, again and again and again.


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## Phil U. (Feb 7, 2009)

Droboat said:


> *Bluff Discharge, cubic feet per second*
> Most recent instantaneous value: 464 09-03-2014 17:00 MDT
> 
> Too little, too late, too often. Boaters and fish lose, again and again and again.


Dude. You are tiresome.


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## Droboat (May 12, 2008)

Agreed. Wrecked's thin apologies for mismanagement of the San Juan flows are tiresome, particularly when Wrecked asserts on the Buzz that below-500 flows are a rarity. Where Wrecked leaves no margin for error in a 500-1000 cfs target range, it is no wonder that fish and boaters lose. 
*
Discharge, cubic feet per second* 
Most recent instantaneous value: 515 09-08-2014 17:00 MDT 

As far as the slagging match, PU, I guess your post confirms you as both a Wrecked apologist and a loser.


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## sjnovak3 (Jun 17, 2004)

Just to clarify the base flow operations-

"The target flow should be maintained between 500 and 600 cfs, attempting to maintain target flow closer to 500 cfs."

From the Flow Recommendations for the San Juan River (page 8-13) by the FWS biologists. This is why we attempt to manage the target base flow as close to 500cfs as possible.

http://www.fws.gov/southwest/sjrip/pdf/DOC_Flow_recommendations_San_Juan_River.pdf

Additional SJRIP documents (including measured recovery information based on our operations, etc) can be found on their website. The San Juan River Basin Recovery Implementation Program Home

They also hold public meetings annually to share the hydrologic and biologic information and research on this very topic. Feel free to attend to get a basis of understanding for why we operate this way. Contrary to popular belief, we do not, in fact, create water, and management of Navajo is not as simple as "cranking up the release". 

Call or email with any questions.


---
Susan Novak Behery, P.E.
Hydraulic Engineer
Reclamation
Western Colorado Area Office
Durango, CO
[email protected]
970-385-6560


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## restrac2000 (Mar 6, 2008)

sjnovak3 said:


> Just to clarify the base flow operations-
> 
> "The target flow should be maintained between 500 and 600 cfs, attempting to maintain target flow closer to 500 cfs."
> 
> ...


I guess I will firmly plant myself in the realm of apologist and say that I think your communication here on the Buzz Susan should be a model for other agencies. Thanks for keeping us abreast of changes so effectively. I have used the information countless times in the past and hope to keep that trend up.

And from what I can gather....ya'll do pretty well keeping a river like the Juan flowing through the autumn. I have done a few October and late November trips that may not have been feasible without thoughtful management.

Phillip


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## Droboat (May 12, 2008)

*Obsiquious Buzzards*

I agree that it is good to hear the self-serving stories that Wrecked uses to justify its water hoarding, but don't see any point in posting obsequious apologies for Wrecked when its stories don't add up. Thanking Wrecked for providing October/November flows that are below the 1500+ pre-dam daily average for those months is worse than obsequious, whatever that might be. Before you say "at least it doesn't dry out in summer," keep in mind that the San Juan's natural summer flow was sucked off by summer alfalfa irrigation.

Targeting and consistently missing the RIP minimum flow - 500cfs - means less for fish and boaters and more for the water hoarders and developers who control the Wrecked Bureau. If Wrecked implemented a robust spring flow regime, that might be different, but they don't.

The RIP document confirms that Wrecked's cronies chose development, irrigation, and evaporation over a margin of safety for boaters and fish:
*
F. Category: Target Base Flow (mean weekly nonspring runoff flow).*
*
Level: 500 cfs from Farmington to Lake Powell, with 250 cfs minimum from Navajo Dam.*

*Purpose: Maintaining low, stable base flows enhances nursery habitat conditions*.
Flows between 500 and 1,000 cfs optimize backwater habitat. *Selecting
flows at the low end of the range increases the availability of water for development* and spring releases. It also provides capacity for storm flows to increase flows and still maintain optimum backwater area. This level of flow balances provision of near-maximum low-velocity habitat and near optimum flows in secondary channels, while allowing water availability to maintain the required frequency, magnitude, and duration of peak flows
important for Colorado pikeminnow reproductive success.


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