fishteck Posted April 15, 2016 Posted April 15, 2016 15 April 2016 TransAlta released the following Bearspaw Dam outflow forecast this afternoon: TransAlta will be conducting maintenance on the Bearspaw Dam from April 18-22. This will result in fluctuating water levels on the Bow River. The work is to repair damage from the 2013 flood - fixing gates and removing debris – means reducing the flow from the dam to keep workers safe, and water levels may be lower as a result. River users may notice fluctuations in the river levels (between 10 cm to 35 cm) that last between 15 minutes and five hours during daylight hours. Flows could vary between 100 and 40 CMS in the same day As future bulletins are received thay will be added. Quote
Dangus Posted April 15, 2016 Posted April 15, 2016 Some boats may find themselves high and dry! 1 Quote
BurningChrome Posted April 15, 2016 Posted April 15, 2016 Yeah I'd be careful floating those days. Quote
bcubed Posted April 16, 2016 Posted April 16, 2016 just wait to see how low they're gonna drop it....it's gonna be nasty. I predict mid 30 cms at the gauge Quote
jasonvilly Posted April 16, 2016 Posted April 16, 2016 i took a look at little bow and sunshine snow pack data today. On or below the low average. Shaping up to be another low water year. We could still get lots of moisture, but time is running out. Will also be interesting to see if they draw down ghost as much they did last year. It was basically running its traditional river path. It was the lowest I had ever seen. Quote
badatt Posted April 18, 2016 Posted April 18, 2016 I don't understand why Transalta is allowed to do this during spawning season. That stretch of river is closed now for a reason. Once again they get away with doing whatever they want at the expense of the environment. Reminds me of the Spray River disaster a few years ago. 3 Quote
TroutPanther Posted April 23, 2016 Posted April 23, 2016 i took a look at little bow and sunshine snow pack data today. On or below the low average. Shaping up to be another low water year. We could still get lots of moisture, but time is running out. Will also be interesting to see if they draw down ghost as much they did last year. It was basically running its traditional river path. It was the lowest I had ever seen. Wow - big change from a month or two ago where we were looking pretty well avg. Everyone do their rain/snow dance, mantra, ritual... Thankfully the forecast is calling for some rain, let's hope the higher elevations get some of the white stuff. Just looked at the snow data, this last couple weeks have kicked off the melt at almost all of the higher elevation data points - in several cases 2-4 weeks before the 25th percentile "early" melt: Sount racehorse, little elbow, sunshine, skoki... Limestone ridge is well ahead of schedule as well, as pointed out by the Alberta fishing mag blog. i guess that's the upshot of 3 degree temp at time of posting! Quote
BurningChrome Posted April 24, 2016 Posted April 24, 2016 Not sure what's going on with the Bow but right now flows are over 100 cms in Calgary. I wonder if TransAlta was holding back upstream for the Bearspaw work and is now letting all that water go. Don't think there was that much rain upstream yesterday... Quote
bcubed Posted April 24, 2016 Posted April 24, 2016 http://www.environment.alberta.ca/apps/basins/DisplayData.aspx?Type=Figure&BasinID=8&DataType=3&StationID=RGHOSRES Gotta make room for the flood... Like we're Having one this year 1 Quote
fishteck Posted April 24, 2016 Author Posted April 24, 2016 BurningChrome: Look at the first post. TransAlta was increasing and decreasing flows through the Bearspaw Dam from a low of 40 CMS to 100 CMS during the course of a day while they were repairing the flow control gates. The reports I received on Friday would indicate that the work would be completed by the weekend. Therefore the flows out of Bearspaw should return to "normal" for a while. The pilot project last year to drop Ghost Reservoir in May in anticipation of high run-off will be a part of the Bow River flood mitigation mandate this year and I expect going forward. The discussion we had with TransAlta last summer indicated that Ghost and Bearspaw reservoirs would fill to capacity in 2 to 3 days under a high flow advisory. The only significant hold back of water is by way of the dam system upstream. Quote
BurningChrome Posted April 25, 2016 Posted April 25, 2016 Yeah, I'm well aware of the work on Bearspaw - they actually went as low as 24 cms at one point. The 100+ cms we're seeing right now is way above normal for this time of year though. Guess maybe they're dropping the Ghost earlier than May... Quote
fishteck Posted April 25, 2016 Author Posted April 25, 2016 Here is today's daily average releases from Ghost and Bearspaw, and the trend for the following 2-3 days. Please note that system conditions may change quickly due to abnormal and unpredictable rapid local inflow variations. Quote
bcubed Posted April 26, 2016 Posted April 26, 2016 Apparently a massive dump of water to go through the elbow the second week of May.. Just in time that if there were any rainbows spawning, their fry will be smoked by a 2 cms to 100 cms difference Quote
Dangus Posted April 26, 2016 Posted April 26, 2016 Doesn't that just simulate a freshet anyways? Lots of rivers start their freshet late April or early May. Quote
scel Posted April 26, 2016 Posted April 26, 2016 It seems like they are following the snow-pack data, which is 3-5 weeks ahead of normal. http://www.environment.alberta.ca/apps/basins/Map.aspx?Basin=8&DataType=4 I would hope the collective group of engineers/scientists could understand their decisions last year were poor. However, they were conditions that bred a group of honorary steelhead. Maybe shutting down the Bow to angling for August is a good thing. 3 Quote
bcubed Posted April 26, 2016 Posted April 26, 2016 Fish Creek was 13.7 degrees before the cooler weather this week... A mid season closure is pretty well imminent in my mind, especially as they're predumping ghost again Quote
fishteck Posted April 27, 2016 Author Posted April 27, 2016 Today's Ghost and Bearspaw flow forecast If you would like to receive this data 3 time a week send me a message with your email. Cheers Quote
fishteck Posted April 29, 2016 Author Posted April 29, 2016 The weekend bow river flow forecast: This will be the last data I will post on the forum. If you would like to receive this data 3 x /week send be your email. Regards: 1 Quote
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