Pathfinder by the numbers

Bruce Boe, director of meteorology with the Weather Modification Project shared good news with the Upper Platte Valley Water Users Association Wednesday afternoon.

He predicted more snow in March for the Sierra Madre and Medicine Bow Ranges.

Last year, the snow stopped in March. That, combined with an early runoff, left the Platte Valley in one of its driest summers in history.

“That is the best news I have heard in a while,” Joe Glode said to Boe after his presentation.

Boe explained the weather pattern is different this time of year than it was last year. Boe believed that means more snow in March.

This good news could impact the call on Pathfinder Reservoir, which was another subject discussed at the Water Users meeting.

Prior to the call on Pathfinder Reservoir, Glode, Jeb Steward and the Water Users’ attorney Tom Korver traveled to Casper to talk with Coleman Smith Jr., the new director of the Bureau of Reclamation, in depth about how the water is being accounted for.

Glode said the accounting include totals with or without the 54,000 acre-foot environmental/municipal account.

The 54,000 acre-foot modification was an agreement made in 2007 by the state of Wyoming, the Bureau of Reclamation and the state of Nebraska and includes the endangered species and municipal accounts in the Pathfinder Reservoir.

“As we begin to draw on the 54,000 acre-feet of state water and/or environmental water at Pathfinder,” Glode said. “The water is being accounted for together and separately as it flows into Pathfinder.”

Glode said he gets a daily accounting now.

Beginning in February, the agreement allows for a call on the Platte River of what is now in Pathfinder and the anticipated runoff does not equal 1.1 million acre-feet.

“We are a long ways from 1.1 million,” Glode said in a interview Monday morning.

As of Feb. 27, 251,000 acre-feet were in the Pathfinder ownership account. That combined with the anticipated runoff equals 705,000 acre-feet.

With a difference of 395,000 acre-feet needed to fill Pathfinder, that difference creates the call on the water.

Glode said before the Pathfinder Modification Act of 2007, the only demand on the reservoir was for irrigation.

At the Water Users meeting Wednesday, Glode said, “Had there not been the Pathfinder modification, there would be 247,000 acre-feet.”

Every month through April, the State Engineers Office (SEO) will receive a report of anticipated runoff from the Bureau of Reclamation. From that report, the SEO will make a determination if there will be a call on the Platte River.