05/11/06 Steamflows high, will stay that way

How fast will it melt? That's the question that we can't answer because we don't know when temperatures will rise and melt all of the higher elevation snowpack. Ron Abromovich of the NRCS snow survey says cooler weather so far this spring has helped keep lowland flooding to a minimum but the reservoirs are filling fast. ABROMOVICH "Our melt rates were reaching a half an inch to an inch of snow water per day that we're losing but then the cold spell came back and it slowed the melt rates back down to a half an inch or less. Melt rates are going to increase to an inch to an inch and a half per day and that's when we'll see the streams really take off." Abromovich says the Boise River basin has 133 percent normal snowpack, three major dams, Lake Lowell and is typical of the balancing act that water managers are dealing with today. . ABROMOVICH "Total they hold about 900 thousand acre feet and that forecast of 133 percent of average comes out to 1.4 million acre feet so there's much more water than the reservoirs can hold because they're pushing 70 percent right now." The Boise River, like many streams and rivers is running near flood stage and may stay that way for many weeks to come. Voice of Idaho Agriculture Bill Scott