Lake Meredith - 60s Vintage Reservoir Near Amarillo - Now At 1% Of Capacity

[hatrack]

Lake Meredith never has lived up to expectations. Built in the 1960s by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation as a municipal water source, the Sanford reservoir never has been more than 60 percent full and now is at less than 1 percent of capacity. "Originally, the estimate was it could produce 126,000 acre-feet (of water) per year. That's what the pipeline (taking water to cities) was designed to handle," said Kent Satterwhite, general manager of the Canadian River Municipal Water Authority, or CRMWA, which began managing the lake in 1968.

That estimate shrank to 102,000 acre-feet upon the 1963 construction of Ute Lake upstream on the Canadian River near Tucumcari, N.M. An acre-foot of water is 325,851 gallons, or enough to cover one acre of land to a depth of one foot. Allocations to CRMWA cities, including Amarillo, from Meredith were about 82,000 acre-feet until recent years but will drop from that mark by 16 times to 5,000 in 2011, Satterwhite said.

More frequently cited figures from Meredith gauge its fall, literally: Water levels have plunged from a peak of 101.73 feet in 1973 to a current record low of about 38 feet. That recently prompted officials to announce the closure of the Meredith marina. Theories on the drop abound, but a regional water study adopted last month lists a few suspects. In addition to the obvious - reduced rainfall - factors include something visible but less plain, an increase in shrub and brush.

"It's not just their water intake but also they act as barriers to overland flow so water ponds and evaporates," said Simone Kiel, an engineer and associate at Freese and Nichols, a Fort Worth firm that has studied Meredith and the Canadian River Basin extensively.

EDIT

http://amarillo.com/news/local-news/2010-12-19/rebound-hopes-evaporate

[Nihil]

1. It's amazing how far in denial some people are ...

They're busy looking at the "less obvious" factors ...

> Theories on the drop abound, but a regional water study adopted last month
> lists a few suspects. In addition to the obvious - reduced rainfall - factors
> include something visible but less plain, an increase in shrub and brush.

... as well as including the "more obvious" ...

> Less intense rainfall resulting in runoff and declining groundwater levels
> that dry up springs are other potential causes for Meredith's shrinkage.

... without addressing the "bleeding obvious" ...

> Today, well water is making up the difference between demand and lake production.
> CRMWA is now completing the third phase of a well field in Roberts County, ...
> ...
> The third phase, driven by Meredith's fall, is projected to cost $49 million
> for 15 wells that should all be online soon, doubling the well field's capacity.
> ...
> CRMWA plans to turn off the lake pumps except for during the high-demand months
> of June, July and August that see people watering their lawns and filling
> swimming pools.

If you keep taking out water to fill pools and water lawns then the groundwater
level is fucking well guaranteed to "decline" and this, in turn, will affect runoff
(and hence reservoir levels).

:argh: