Room will be made in Lake Mead for runoff

Federal officials plan to release extra water from Lake Mead into the Colorado River, hoping to avoid flooding next spring.

The release by the Bureau of Reclamation, scheduled Sept. 1-20, will help create additional reservoir storage space along the river to prepare for the 2000 spring snow runoff.

In addition the flow will relieve a nearly full Lake Powell Reservoir upstream behind Glen Canyon Dam. That reservoir is 3,700 feet deep and its current level is 3,693 feet.

Lake Mead's level stood at 1,208.06 feet at midnight Sunday. Through December the lake's elevation could rise more than 5 feet, to about 1,214 feet.

The depth of Lake Mead to the spillways at Hoover Dam is 1,221.4 feet.

About 200,000 acre-feet of water needs to be released, bureau officials said. That's almost as much as the 300,000 acre-feet Nevada is allowed to withdraw from Lake Mead annually.

About 79,000 acre-feet will be released in September, the rest expected in November and December.

The Bureau of Reclamation estimates that by Jan. 1 about 5.8 million acre-feet of flood control space will be available in the river.

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