Hog Park at capacity

A little after midnight on June 6, Hog Park Reservoir reached capacity and a spillway began directing water that would normally flow into the reservoir back into Hog Creek.

Hog Creek is a tributary of the Encampment River, and a press release from the Cheyenne Board of Public Utilities (CBOPU) says that residents and visitors to the Encampment River area can expect higher than normal flows now that the reservoir is effectively closed to more water.

Hog Park Reservoir is in the Sierra Madre Mountains about two miles north of the Colorado border, and around 10 miles south of HWY 70 running west out of Encampment. It is one of eight reservoirs operated by the City of Cheyenne, and now all of those reservoirs (with the exception of Seminoe Reservoir) are above capacity. Water from Hog Park Reservoir is used as “trade water” for Cheyenne, meaning the city exchanges water collected there for the right to “collect water from Douglas Creek at Rob Roy Reservoir,” according to a city website. That website lists the Hog Park Reservoir’s capacity at 22,650 acre feet, and says that it is at 100.5% of capacity.

According to CBOPU public relations specialist Dena Egenhoff, the reservoir is .19 feet above its maximum level. Egenhoff said that Hog Park has spilled in every year since 2010, with the exception of 2013. According to the CBOPU press release, “With a higher than normal snowpack, flows in the Encampment River, Little Snake River and surrounding riverways could be heavy for several weeks.” A Natural Resource Conservation Survey report on snow water equivalent (SWE) in the Upper North Platte River Basin says that SWE levels were at 143 percent of baseline as of June 6.

“There has been so much precipitation (statewide) this year,” Egenhoff said. Even Pathfinder Reservoir–one of the largest in the state–has spilled this year, she said.