BOISE (AP) - An excellent start to the winter snowpack has
faded, and that has
Idaho Power Co. worried because it needs the water for hydroelectric
generation.
The snow accumulation in the mountains upstream from Brownlee
Reservoir is less
than 83 percent of normal.
Idaho Power's three Hells Canyon reservoirs on the Snake River
- Brownlee,
Oxbow and Hells Canyon - supply most of its power.
"We're moving into the last half of February and so far,
precipitation in the entire
Snake River Basin is just 6 percent of normal for the month,"
said Roger Furhman,
Idaho Power water management director.
"While we are farther ahead then we were last year, we
definitely are not out of the
woods yet."
Furhman said January's precipitation was less than 60 percent
of normal, while
temperatures were about one-half degree higher than normal.
Inflow into Brownlee Reservoir in January ran slightly more
than 12,000 cubic feet
per second, or about 60 percent of normal.
February inflows so far have averaged about 11,300 cfs, 55 percent of average.
Idaho Power is maintaining a 9,000 cfs minimum outflow from Hells Canyon Dam.
The Northwest River Forecast Center's early February projection
for
April-through-July inflows into Brownlee is 4.5 million acre-feet,
72 percent of
normal.
Idaho Power closely monitors snowpack data from the U.S. Natural
Resource
Conservation Service, which reports on conditions in the Snake
River drainage.
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