Unfortunately Optima has a hole in the bottom (actually I think it's some sort of geological fault) which allows water to drain out. I think it resurfaces in the river below the dam. It's an eternal embarrassment to the Corps of Engineers, and will never be a viable lake.
Unfortunately Optima has a hole in the bottom (actually I think it's some sort of geological fault) which allows water to drain out. I think it resurfaces in the river below the dam. It's an eternal embarrassment to the Corps of Engineers, and will never be a viable lake.
Long ago, when I was studying climatology in college, we discussed Lake Optima. IIRC, there is an aquifer that is recharged by the surface water that would fill the lake, but the bigger problem was that there just wasn't enough annual rainfall in that region to support a lake of that size. It was a colossal planning failure.
This. ^^^
They just screwed the pooch on their calculations. Evaporation is constant. Rainfall isn't. They just dont get rain frequently enough to keep up.
Canton is down approximately 3.5' to 4' with 3 more feet to go. It is sickening to see this happen.
So where's canton at now? After all the moisture we got hopefully it's already been replaced. I know Hefner looked a lot better today and still had water rushing in. Anybody from that area been by canton lake recently?
Hefner looks better, because it received an increase of approximately 9' elevation from Canton Lake. The snow hasn't even completely melted to see a change at Canton. FYI, Just under 26,000 acre feet of water was drained from Canton in February to raise Hefner 9'. This snowfall will not replenish Canton to full pool levels.
Canton is still under seige by the snow fall. The snow was great but nOOOOOOOOOOOO way there was enough to raise the lake that much.
There is another big snow storm scheduled for the march 9th weekend, maybe it will help.
I am aware Hefner got around 9 ft of water from Canton but that water has already made its way to Hefner. Since the river bed was wet and we got all this moisture, all of it has been rushing in and it has made a big difference over the last week. Really what I'm wondering is with all of this moisture how much has Canton rose and does it look like after everything melts and runs off it will be back to where it was before okc exercised water rights?
How much rain did you get before the snow? The snow is better than nothing but not much. 12" of snow = about 1" of rain. Reason I ask is we got around 1" to 2" in the metro area before a snowflake even fell. I'm curious too but I realize it may be a couple more days before Canton's level reflects the new moisture.
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