Colorado River flow expected to be down in 2012 A dry winter
means there will be less water flowing in the lower Colorado
River this summer. “System wide total reservoir storage, as of
April 4, was 63 percent of capacity,” said Doug Hendrix,
external coordination manager for the Bureau of Reclamation's
Yuma Area Office. “This year has been a little bit drier year.
The precipitation to date in the Upper Basin into the Upper
Basin reservoirs has been about 79 percent of average.” Another
issue that means lower water levels was the very warm weather in
March that prematurely melted an already small snowpack into the
river's Upper Basin. Snow is the source of most of the river
water flowing into the Lower Basin states of Arizona, Nevada and
California. Water levels in the river and lakes near Yuma may
fluctuate slightly throughout the summer, Hendrix said. Blocks
of water are released upriver periodically as water orders come
in from entities such as the Yuma County Water Users Association
and the Imperial Irriga