Rising Lake Mead closing some areas

Monday, Nov. 3, 1997 | 10:53 a.m.

Predicted intense winter rains have yet to fall, but Lake Mead is expected to rise a foot this week.

The federal Bureau of Reclamation has scheduled another man-made flood similar to last year's experiment on the Colorado River, bureau spokesman Bob Walsh said.

The expected 31,000 cubic feet per second peak flow down river should scour sediments from the Colorado's channel and move them to the shoreline to restore wildlife habitat.

The higher flows will run through Wednesday then drop back to about 19,000 cubic feet per second for the rest of November.

In an average year the bureau cuts back to around 8,000 cubic feet of flow during the winter when downstream demands for water and power drop. Then dam gates along the Colorado open for spring's melting snowpack.

But this year could be anything but normal along the river.

Lake Mead is almost 11 feet higher than it was in October 1982, the year the river's reservoirs filled and led to the flood in July 1983 that spilled over the Lower Colorado's dams.

The latest prediction for December's high-water mark stands at 1,216 feet, Walsh said.

To mark the 1983 level, the lake would have to rise another 8 feet.

The difference in river operations today and 15 years ago is the careful scientific watch.

From 1986 until 1993 the Colorado ran at some of its lowest levels, Walsh said.

Since then the river has been normal to above noral.

"That's the way the Colorado River is," Walsh said. "It's up and it's down."

Reservoirs such as Lake Mead and dams including Hoover help control the raging river and prevent flooding while delivering hydroelectricity, he said.

Higher waters have already caused the National Park Service to close a road and a picnic area.

Nobody expected water levels as high as 1982-83, Park Service spokeswoman Karen Whitney said.

When bathrooms were installed at Boulder Beach, park officials wanted to put them convenient enough to people, but high enough to stay dry. Last week the South Cove picnic area and a restroom at the upper end of the lake as well as Horsepower Cove Road in the lake's lower Boulder Basin were closed.

"It's been lots of work for the concessions and the docks, plus disrupting aids to navigtion on the lake," Whitney said.

People can still reach Horsepower Cove on foot, but within a month the road fronting Boulder Beach is expected to go under water.

As the lake continues to rise, more roads and beach area will close.