Post: #1

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - Stretches of the Pecos River are going dry, shorelines at state parks up and down the waterway are changing and there are islands popping up that weren't there before.

State and federal officials point to what's happening on the Pecos River as another example of fallout from two years of exceptional drought.

Meteorologists with the National Weather Service say the southeastern corner of the state has been hit the hardest.

Many areas have seen only a couple of inches of rain since the beginning of the year, and monsoon season has been too spotty to make up for the deficit.

Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge outside of Roswell is one of the few places along the Pecos River that remains wet, but spring levels there are low too.


http://www.krqe.com/dpp/news/environment...-tp-go-dry

Post: #2

The Mississippi is having problems too. It is down to one lane of shipping traffic.

Post: #3

wow.. now it's river doom..
i wonder what the hell is really going on with that..
how many is that now..?

Post: #4

Coolchick  Wrote:

wow.. now it's river doom..
i wonder what the hell is really going on with that..
how many is that now..?

Low Water Levels to Block Navigation in Bulgaria's Danube Section

August 22, 2012, Wednesday



Ship sailing on the Bulgarian section of the Danube River has become extremely difficult as water levels continue to drop.

There are many low water thresholds which obstruct the passage of ships.

"In a few days' time, we may stop our ships altogether," says Ivan Ivanov, Deputy Director of the Fleet Exploitation directorate at Bulgarian River Shipping Jsc, in an interview for Darik radio.

Ivanov points out that the most difficult section is between Ruse and Svishtov.

He informs that the level at some points near Svishtov is 180 cm.

Ivanov explains that it normally takes 10 hours to cover the distance between the two Danube cities, adding that there is a ship that set sail from Ruse on Sunday and has not reached Svishtov yet.

He says that extra vessels have been sent to many spots to unload cargo from the ships to reduce draft.

Ivanov emphasizes that the procedure results in substantial losses for companies operating in the sector.

According to him, the poor regulatory framework of ship sailing on the Danube creates additional problems.

Over the past 24 hours, the Danube's water level at Ruse has dropped by 14 cm and is expected to fall by another 17 cm in the next two days.

Post: #5

Big Sioux River levels drop ever lower
Some Sioux Falls residents have watered more, paid big

The driest summer in decades has the Big Sioux River flowing at extremely low levels, and experts say it would take at least two inches of rain in a single day to bring it back to a normal level.

Flowing at about 59 cubic feet per second, about 200 cubic feet per second less than the norm, the Big Sioux River benefited from less than an inch of rainfall in a two-month span, said Mike Gillispie, hydrologist for the National Weather Service in Sioux Falls.

“With as dry as the soils are and as much water as the crops are using, we’d probably need about 2 inches of rain in a day just to get it back up (to normal),” he said. “And, of course, then we’d have to have normal, additional precipitation to keep it at those levels.”

Total rainfall in June and July was 74 hundredths of an inch and 24 hundredths of an inch, respectively.

Trent Lubbers of Sioux Falls Public Works said the dry conditions have resulted in increased water use from Sioux Falls residents this summer, and that’s reflected in some bills.

“I don’t see the water bills directly, but I have heard anecdotally that there have been bills (as high as $500),” he said. “It’s directly related to water usage. Right now, we have the water available … so if a customer wants to use that kind of water to irrigate their yard, they are more than welcome to do that.”

While Public Works continues to monitor the water flow of the river, the city is still in Stage 1 of the ordinance watering schedule, allowing watering on odd and even days, depending on a resident’s street address.

If the water flow in the river drops below 50 cubic feet per second, the city will move to Stage 2 of the watering schedule, which allows for watering once a week.

“Primarily, the river levels have the most direct impact on the water system because the Big Sioux River is one of the sources that we tap,” Lubbers said. “When we get to 50 cubic feet per second in the river or below that level, we’ll go to that second stage. The reason we do that is because we need to make sure that we’re looking at the long-term impacts of low river flow and impact that has on the aquifer.”


http://www.argusleader.com/article/20120...ever-lower

Post: #6

Bill Evans Lake is dropping its water level; Santa Rosa Lake getting fish salvage order
Sun-News Report
Posted: 08/18/2012 12:45:25 PM MDT

SILVER CITY Bill Evans Lake, once home of the state record largemouth bass, is rapidly losing its water, as the pumps that feed it from the Gila River remain shut down due to ash flow from the Whitewater Baldy wildfire in southwestern New Mexico.

Officials with Freeport McMoRan, which uses the water for its mining operations, said the lake level might drop as much as 40 feet before water conditions improve enough to resume pumping. In the meantime, Department of Game and Fish has stopped stocking the lake.

Bill Evans Lake is owned by the State Game Commission. The mining company s four pumps carry water 300 feet uphill from the Gila River to the lake. When full, the 62-acre lake is about 100 feet deep. Fish species include catfish, trout, largemouth bass and sunfish.

The state record bass, taken in 1995, weighed 15 pounds, 13 ounces.
The lake will remain open for fishing and camping, although boat ramps will be inaccessible

In other fishing news, Santa Rosa Lake is also anticipating a dramatic drop in the water level. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which manages the lake, announced that the Carlsbad Irrigation District has called for a large release of water to maintain the water levels downstream in Sumner Lake and to accommodate irrigation needs. Santa Rosa Lake is expected to fall below boat docks and boat ramps, while low levels could have negative effects on fish in the lake.
The Department of Game and Fish announced an emergency fish salvage


http://www.scsun-news.com/ci_21343680

Post: #7

Threat of water level drop dismissed


The International Joint Commission has no intentions of allowing water levels in Lake Huron and Georgian Bay to drop by more than 1.25 meters (4 feet).

IJC spokesman Bernard Beckhoff of Ottawa dismissed the suggestion made by an official of Sierra Club Ontario.

Beckhoff said Sierra Club officials may have misinterpreted a hypothetical plan talked about by the Upper Great Lakes Study Board.

Mary Muter of Honey Harbour, head of the Sierra Club Ontario's Great Lakes Section, told QMI Agency this week the public has until the end of August to comment on a Lake Superior Regulation Plan 2012 that would control the discharge of water from Lake Superior to Lake Huron through control gates at Sault Ste. Marie.

She said for the past 13 years the water level of Lake Huron and Georgian Bay has been hovering near its all-time low.

Muter said the IJC held public hearings in July at locations around the Great Lakes to consider the recommendations of a five-year $17 million study of the problem.

"The video presented at the hearings showed how well the recommended Lake Superior Regulation Plan 2012 would control the discharge of water from Lake Superior to Lake Huron through the control gates at Sault Ste. Marie,'' she said.

Muer said that under dry conditions it showed that to maintain Lake Superior's level, Michigan and Huron lakes and Georgian Bay would undergo a reduction of supply from Superior thereby dropping up to four feet.

"The video was of poor quality and obscured these facts,'' she said. "Should this four-foot drop in level be allowed to happen, 50% of Georgian Bay's wetlands would dry up and much of the iconic Thirty Thousand Islands area of the eastern shore of Georgian Bay would become accessible by canoe only,'' she said.

She said that while the proposed 2012 management plan for Lake Superior may well be the right approach for that lake, in very dry conditions it could and likely would be disastrous for lakes Huron and Michigan.

"Should the IJC decide to recommend the construction of mitigating structures in the St. Clair River which would restore the level of lakes Huron and Michigan and allow for a degree of control of that level as is the arrangement for the other Great Lakes,'' she said.

According to Muter, lakes Superior, St. Clair, Erie and Ontario are currently 10 inches below long-term averages due to the warm, dry summer.

She said lakes Michigan and Huron and Georgian Bay are 25 inches below normal and have been close to this level for an unprecedented 13 years.

"For most of that time they have met the IJC's 1993 levels reference study crisis condition level, at which damage was known to occur and action to reduce the outflow through the St. Clair River was recommended,'' she said.

Muter said the IJC's Upper Great Lakes Study found increased outflow from Lake Huron through the St. Clair River is a contributing factor to the sustained low water levels of lakes Michigan and Huron and Georgian Bay but has recommended against action in the river.

Beckhoff said that although current water levels are low, they are not the record lows seen in the 1930s.

"Water levels are low because there has been little rainfall and little snow pack in the Great Lakes basin this year,'' he said. "It's been a very dry year throughout the basin.''

There has been a major decline in water levels of Lake St. Clair and Mitchell's Bay during the past two decades.


http://www.theobserver.ca/2012/08/16/thr...-dismissed

Post: #8

Officials looking into mysterious water level drop on Shenandoah River's North Fork

HARRISONBURG, Va. — Officials are trying to figure out what caused water levels to drop twice in a four-day span this summer along the Shenandoah River's North Fork.

The Daily News-Record (Sorry, no url shorteners/NNqPAK) reports the Shenandoah Riverkeeper advocacy group has sent letters asking about 800 landowners to report unusual observations about the river.

Data taken from a U.S. Geological Survey gauge near Strasburg shows the water level dropped more than 3 inches on June 29, the day a severe windstorm struck the region. The levels dropped again on July 3.

The river's level hit 1.7 feet on June 29 after being at about 2.4 feet around June 20. In the span of a few hours on June 29, the water flow went from 175 to 65 cubic feet per second.

Gauges throughout Shenandoah County and north to Winchester reported alarming water-level losses, while those in Rockingham County didn't show a severe drop.

Many towns draw water from the river, including Broadway, Timberville, Woodstock and Strasburg. Jeff Kelble, head of the Shenandoah Riverkeeper, sent out the letters to landowners and also has met with operators of water-withdrawal facilities along the North Fork.

"Nobody's ever seen anything like this," he said.

Scott Kudlas, director of water supply for the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, said it's unlikely that agriculture operations using the North Fork to combat extreme heat would have caused the water levels to suddenly drop.

"It's not atypical during drought periods to see these unusual events, (but) most of the time we can explain them," Kudlas said. "In this case, it's one of those we weren't really able to find the smoking gun."

___

Information from: Daily News-Record, http://www.dnronline.com

Post: #9

LoP Guest  Wrote:

Officials looking into mysterious water level drop on Shenandoah River's North Fork

HARRISONBURG, Va. — Officials are trying to figure out what caused water levels to drop twice in a four-day span this summer along the Shenandoah River's North Fork.

The Daily News-Record (Sorry, no url shorteners/NNqPAK) reports the Shenandoah Riverkeeper advocacy group has sent letters asking about 800 landowners to report unusual observations about the river.

Data taken from a U.S. Geological Survey gauge near Strasburg shows the water level dropped more than 3 inches on June 29, the day a severe windstorm struck the region. The levels dropped again on July 3.

The river's level hit 1.7 feet on June 29 after being at about 2.4 feet around June 20. In the span of a few hours on June 29, the water flow went from 175 to 65 cubic feet per second.

Gauges throughout Shenandoah County and north to Winchester reported alarming water-level losses, while those in Rockingham County didn't show a severe drop.

Many towns draw water from the river, including Broadway, Timberville, Woodstock and Strasburg. Jeff Kelble, head of the Shenandoah Riverkeeper, sent out the letters to landowners and also has met with operators of water-withdrawal facilities along the North Fork.

"Nobody's ever seen anything like this," he said.

Scott Kudlas, director of water supply for the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, said it's unlikely that agriculture operations using the North Fork to combat extreme heat would have caused the water levels to suddenly drop.

"It's not atypical during drought periods to see these unusual events, (but) most of the time we can explain them," Kudlas said. "In this case, it's one of those we weren't really able to find the smoking gun."

___

Information from: Daily News-Record, http://www.dnronline.com

Sorry to reply to my own posting, but....

In thinking about all the river issues I had the idea that 'maybe' it's the land rising rather than the rivers going lower. They do measure the river depths via gauges on the land, but water will (so far) always run to the lowest point. To verify this I guess a check would be needed on the river volumes (flows) and if perhaps there was in increase in water levels elsewhere.

I don't remember mention in any of the articles considering land movement.

Post: #10

Stay off of those little islands that show up when the water is low...they are quicksand.

Post: #11

Karu  Wrote:

Stay off of those little islands that show up when the water is low...they are quicksand.

Post: #12

Karu  Wrote:

Stay off of those little islands that show up when the water is low...they are quicksand.

Great point!

Yep. I remember years ago 3 kids were missing in my hometown, and it turned out they'd all jumped off a footbridge to swim and all drowned because their feet and legs stuck in the muck at the bottom of the shallow river. Horrible.