Will this help refill lake Powell?
It took over 15 years to fill it the first time.
One wet year won't do it
No, it won’t, but it’ll make a dent.
One thing about big water years, the runoff is proportionally larger. When we have a 60-80% year, the creeks and springs are low to dry, and the vast majority of the water goes into the ground or is used for irrigation before it ever gets to the big water. Once you start getting above 110%, everything over that, for the most part, gets flushed down stream. So one big year can be the equivalent of half a dozen meager years or more.
Not comparable to Powell, but Lake Raystown was expected to take years to fill.
Build for flood control and recreation, it did its job in style.
Just months after being partially completed, Hurricane Agnes hit.
In a couple days it caught 160,000 acre feet of water and prevented
60 million in 1972 dollars in damage.
It's estimated that without the dam the flooding would have exceeded
the historic records.
Sure it's smaller, but it is scalable.
