[dropcap]Back[/dropcap] on June 30th when I posted the June 2016 Water Level Chart to the website I speculated that the dam operator would likely lower the gate further within the next day or two so as to maintain at least the appearance of complying with the Water Level Order‘s (WLO) requirement for maintaining minimum outlet flows. What with the long Fourth of July weekend, the parties, the cookouts and what have you, I didn’t get a chance to swing by the dam until yesterday. Sure enough, measurements of a photo I took of the gate mechanism shows that sometime in the last 5 days the gate has been lowered approximately 5″ and is now open just a little more than 2″ as suggested in the WLO to maintain minimum outlet flows this time of year. For my records I’m back dating the gate change to July 1st, and today’s water level chart update reflects this. In theory anyways we can look forward to it remaining at this level for about the next two and a half months, until September 15th.

On a more unpleasant note, the lake level reached 5′ below the top of the dam this morning. It hasn’t been this low since the end of last September.