Water levels in Phoenix area lakes

[Jordy]

For anyone who cares:
There was a thread a while back talking about the water levels in Roosevelt, Apache, Canyon and Saguaro lakes East of Phoenix. The question was, why are the lower lakes so full when Roosevelt is hovering at 10% capacity. The lower lakes are all over 95% full.
I did some research and came up with an answer that made a lot of sense. Roosevelt has the largest surface area of any of the Salt River lakes, therefore is subject to far more evaporation than the smaller, narrower deeper lakes that are further on down. So in an effort to save millions of gallons of water from evaporation out of the wide shallow Roosevelt, they have sent the water downstream to lakes that offer more protection via depth and canyon walls etc. Made sense to me.
There is my scientific contribution for the day.
Jordy

[vishus]

I thought the reason that Saguaro/Canyon are near full is that they are the MAJOR electricity generators for SRP (who maintains the water flow).
With NO snow/rain, Roosevelt does not get replenished for what it has to send down to Saguaro/Canyon for SRP.
just a thought...

[Jordy]

Everything you ever wanted to know about dams and power generation along the Salt River:
Roosevelt Lake is the lowest it has been since it was built almost 100 years ago and for the first time since it began generating power, the turbines have now stopped. Roosevelt has hydrogeneration capacity of 36,000 kW.
Horse Mesa Dam (Apache Lake) has three conventional hydroelectric generating units rated at a total of 32,000 kW and one pumped storage hydroelectric unit added in 1972 and rated at 97,000 kW.
Mormon Flat Dam (Canyon Lake) has two hydroelectric generating units; one is a conventional unit rated at 10,000 kW; the other is a pumped storage unit built in 1971 and rated at 50,000 kW. The pumped storage unit permits recycling of water for hydroelectric production and keeps lake levels relatively constant.
Stewart Mountain Dam (Saguaro Lake) only has a 13,000 kilowatt (kW) hydroelectric generating unit that is operated mainly in the summer months.
As you can see, a majority of the power generation is procuced in the middle two lakes, Canyona and Apache, where the dams have the ability to circulate water from downstream back up. So perhaps it is a combination of both, but I was told that the key factor in running all the water out of Roosevelt was to avoid as much evaporation as possible. To run the lake out to the point that the generators are shut off would suggest the latter though.
Jordy

[vishus]

cool, I thought that it was a bad sign when the water was so low that they had to shut down the generators at Roosevelt or the lack of water pressure was going to damage the turbines....
later,
sid

[wishtoHB]

This is the link that will show the lake water levels according to the SRP. SRP Water levels!

[Jordy]

Arizona Lake Levels
This is the Game and Fish link that has the state lakes including Havasu, Parker, Mead, Powell, etc... This one is updated weekly.
Jordy

[FreddieB81]

Speaking of water levels, Pleasant is lower than I've ever seen it. I was there yesterday and was shocked. The reef north of the marina is now a mountain. There are all kinds of spots you can drive to and launch your boat and you can actually beach on numerous places around the lake.