Bureau of Reclamation warns of low snowpack; says normal power operations should limit high flows at Lake Fork Creek

Michael (Mike) Holberg, facility manager at the PBLO Dam and Field Office of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, told the Lake County Board of County Commissioners on March 10 that the Frying Pan–Arkansas project will operate in a dry‑year mode this spring and summer and that local recreation may be constrained if runoff remains low.

Holberg said the Arkansas River Basin currently has roughly 50% of average snow‑water equivalent and cited National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecasts that expect about 61% of average flow at the Granite gauge. "We are facing the lowest snow pack on record," he said, adding that the bureau bases operational predictions on snowpack gauges feeding statistical models.

Holberg described the project’s infrastructure — the Charles H. Boost (Boost?) tunnel that conveys West‑Slope water under the Continental Divide into Turquoise Lake (capacity roughly 945 CFS), and the…