Water Release Past 30 Hours

[Kansas Fly Fisher]

GREAT! I'm heading down with the wife tomorrow after work. Phil - I'll stop by and pick up one of the leadmasters tomorrow afternoon sometime.

John

[Daddy Carp]

The people who call the "shots" aren't at Beaver, Table Rock or Bull Shoals Dams but probably in Tulsa at the Southwest Power Administration's offices. This is how I assume they make their decisions on who and when to generate.

They estimate power consumption and then decide what the cheapest way to get it. Factor in varied facility conditions... fossil burning plants and nuclear plants both have down time for maintenance. Hydro has restrictions in the fall because of low DO periods. Then lake levels are factored in. They set a plan, weekly, monthly- whatever. But in the middle of a plan, factors change and generation schedules change- sometimes at a moment's notice. The operators have some knowledge but only so far out. But they do what they're told.

Hope this helps... hope it's fairly accurate. Doesn't help estimating for your trip, unfortunately. But again, that's the nature of tailwaters.

HERE IS SOME NUMBERS:

Telephone Numbers to call for

Current Generation Conditions

Telephone

Project Number

Beaver (417)336-5083

Table Rock (417)336-5083

Bull Shoals (870)431-5311

Norfork (870)431-5311

Greers Ferry (501)362-5150

[Phil Lilley]

Ran alittle water this am- not much- already off.

Lots of midging in front of the dock this am... catching rainbows off the dock on pb and worms.

[Greg]

Regarding power consumption and water releases:

First off I'm far, far from an expert regarding this. But I have fished Taney for close to 30 years. While I'm sure power needs are the #1 factor in generation - I think lake levels do play a part. I've noticed that during drought years they run water/generate far less than non-drought times/years. 2006 being a prime example.

During the summer of 2006 when the drought was so bad they just didn't run water that often even during the dog days of the summer. It was the same in other really dry years.

Greg

[Phil Lilley]

They treat water like gold and conserve when they need to. It's a balancing act in dry years. They consider lots of factors. But in wet years they let it rip.