Bureau of Reclamation will slightly increase the amount of water released from Navajo Dam

Hannah Grover
Farmington Daily Times
Anglers fish, Monday, June 1, 2020, at Texas Hole in Navajo Lake State Park. While most of the state park reopened on June 1, the quality waters including Texas Hole reopened earlier.

AZTEC — The San Juan River will be flowing a bit faster starting at 4 a.m. June 30.

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation announced that it will increase the amount of water released from Navajo Dam to 600 cubic feet per second. 

Releases in June have ranged from 510 to 553 cubic feet of water per second.

Releases from the dam are done to maintain a target base flow of between 500 cubic feet per second and 1,000 cubic feet per second between Farmington and Lake Powell. That section of the river is considered critical habitat for endangered fish like the Colorado pikeminnow.

According to the notice from the Bureau of Reclamation, the target base flow is calculated using the weekly average recorded by gauges in that stretch of river.

More information is available at usbr.gov/uc/water/crsp/cs/nvd.html.

Support local journalism with a digital subscription: http://bit.ly/2I6TU0e