Phillips Reservoir refills — and more

Phillips Reservoir is full.

More than full actually.

All thanks to a rain dance done by Jeff Colton.

“This is good for me,” he said. “I like summer, just like everyone else, but having a little extra rain helps too.”

Colton manages the Baker Valley Irrigation District, which means he keeps a watchful eye on the water level at the reservoir, which supplies irrigation water to about 30,000 acres, mostly in Baker Valley.

Colton said Phillips filled about a week and a half ago.

“We’re just a hair overfull, just about 103 percent full,” he said on Tuesday.

The reservoir, along the Powder River about 17 miles southwest of Baker City, is officially full when it’s impounding 73,500 acre-feet of water.

Today the reservoir was holding 75,674 acre-feet.

To put the numbers in perspective, 1 acre-foot would cover one acre of flat ground to a depth of one foot.

And 1 acre-foot of water is equal to 326,000 gallons.

The full reservoir means farmers will have plenty of water to irrigate their crops through the remainder of the growing season.

“Everything is A-OK, everything is fine,” Colton said. “Farmers will have enough and the boaters will have a little more fun.”

In late winter and early spring Colton was a bit concerned because the snowpack in the Elkhorn Mountains, which is the main source of water for the reservoir, was below average.

But freakish May snowstorms, followed by heavy rains in June, washed away his worries.

With the reservoir full, and snow still melting in the Elkhorns, Colton estimates that by late fall, when Phillips normally reaches its lowest level of the year, it will be holding 25,000 to 35,000 acre-feet.

That’s a comfortable cushion that makes it likely the reservoir will refill next spring even if the snowpack is shallow.

By contrast, Colton pointed out that in several years over the past decade, the reservoir had less than 40,000 acre-feet in late June, before the peak of the irrigation season.

On average, he releases about 33,000 acre-feet per year for irrigation.

If a shortfall occurs, as happened every year from 2001-05 and again in 2007, Colton has to limit the amount of reservoir water farmers receive.

But not in 2010.

“I’m real thankful, the rain has made it really good this year,” he said.

Phillips Reservoir

This is the third year in the past five that the reservoir has filled by late June.

That’s a reversal of the trend that predominated during most of the past decade, which was the most prolonged drought since 1968, when the reservoir started forming behind the newly built Mason Dam.

Following are the reservoir levels, in acre-feet, on June 23:

2010 — 75,674

2009 — 73,863

2008 — 66,178

2007 — 36,172

2006 — 74,573

2005 — 36,559

2004 — 34,437

2003 — 31,575

2002 — 31,632

2001 — 26,217