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Lake Chelan likely to be higher in October

Chelan County PUD
News Release
9/17/2009

The level of Lake Chelan is expected to be at least a foot higher than usual through October due to weather and modernization work on one of the two generating units at the Chelan Falls Powerhouse.
 
Depending on stream flows into the lake and tests on the generating unit, the surface lake elevation is forecast to be between 1,098 and 1,099 feet on Oct. 1 -- about a foot higher than the minimum elevation for that date of 1,097.2 feet above sea level. While turbine and generator work is in progress on a unit, water cannot flow through that unit and remains stored in the lake or is spilled if lake levels are getting too high.

Once testing of the first unit is complete and power generation resumes, the yearly drawdown of Lake Chelan will proceed more normally during November. However, beginning in December 2009, the second of two generating units is expected to be removed from service for modernization, and generating capacity will again be reduced through March 2010, slowing the rate that Lake Chelan is lowered during the winter.

Starting Oct.15, water from the dam will flow year-round through the Chelan River gorge to meet terms of the new operating license. The flow of 80 cubic feet per second is about the same amount of water now in the Entiat River and won’t significantly affect the lake level.

According to the PUD’s federal license to operate the Lake Chelan Hydro Project, there is a minimum elevation of 1,079 feet, which has been approached only rarely in the dam’s 80-plus years of operating history. This year the lake dipped to 1,086 feet, and in 2008, the lake went below 1,083 feet. Drawdown is determined each year mainly by flood control requirements, the amount of winter snowpack in the mountains and the predicted rate of spring runoff as the snow melts. Details on lake elevations can be found on the Chelan County PUD Web site at www.chelanpud.org under “Fish Counts and Lake Levels.”

***

For more information contact Scott Buehn, PUD power resource engineer/analyst, at (509) 661-4828, or scott.buehn@chelanpud.org

Kimberlee Craig
Public information officer
Chelan County PUD
Wenatchee, WA
(509) 661-4320, office
(509) 679-6858, mobile
kimberlee.craig@chelanpud.org