Lake McClure again on verge of record low

For a brief time early Monday, Lake McClure’s water level dipped to the lowest on record, and the Merced Irrigation District expects new historic lows to be set this week.

As of midnight Sunday, McClure had 63,819 acre-feet of water, a mere 6 percent of the lake’s capacity. Boone Lek, chief of the reservoir coordinated operations at the department of water resources, said that’s the lowest on record. The reservoir’s average capacity for this time of year is 14 percent of its 1 million acre-feet capacity. Monday’s low number slowly crept up as runoff from Sunday’s storm trickled into the reservoir.

Compared with other reservoirs its size across the state, Lake McClure has the lowest percent of water, data shows.

In February, McClure reached a then-record low of 63,849 acre-feet, and the irrigation district planned on allocating zero water for farmers during the irrigation season. Through spring and early summer, water levels rose just enough – to about 132,0000 acre-feet – for a dismal two-week irrigation run in early July.

Since then, MID has continued letting water out of McClure to keep a minimum amount of water in the Merced River, which nearly went dry in August, and in order to fulfill downstream water requirements.

Though the snowpack for the Merced River watershed, which feeds into Lake McClure, is better than a year ago, it still is slightly behind average, according to the State Water Resources Control Board. The Central Sierra Nevada was at 85 percent of average for Dec. 14, with 6 inches of snow water content, said David Rizzardo, chief of snow surveys for the department of water resources. The most recent storms from Friday and Sunday added about 3 inches of water content.

Looking forward to April 1, considered the peak of the snowpack, the current 6 inches accounts for 21 percent of the Sierra Nevada average.

“So, we are a little bit behind pace, but another good storm or two can catch us up quickly,” Rizzardo said in an email.

The current snowpack is about double what it was this time last year, Rizzardo said.

In an average year, the peak storage at Lake McClure is 728,600 acre-feet on July 1, Lek said. The runoff volume from rain and snow between now and July 1 would need to exceed 728,600 acre-feet to achieve a near normal peak storage this water year.

MID must continue to let water out into Merced River to fulfill requirements, and projects the capacity could continue to decrease.

Mike Jensen, a spokesman for MID, said: “It’s incredibly frustrating for everyone.”

This story was originally published December 14, 2015 at 6:16 PM with the headline "Lake McClure again on verge of record low."